Rip Van Winkle Returned
John Rogers American
Rogers secured national patronage through large sales and small profits, producing tinted plaster statuettes that were ubiquitous in late nineteenth-century middle-class homes. Popular mainly due to their storytelling qualities, some eighty thousand "Rogers Groups" were mass-produced and marketed through the sculptor’s New York studio showroom and mail-order catalogues. Rogers often drew on popular literature. In this work based on a short story by Washington Irving published in 1819, the Dutch American protagonist returns as an elderly man after a twenty-year sleep in the Catskill Mountains. Realistic anecdotal details include his tattered clothing, flowing beard, confused expression, and aged dog.
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