The White Lady of Avenel
Artist
Joseph Mozier
(American, 1812-1890)
CultureAmerican
Date1869
MediumMarble
DimensionsOverall: 51 3/8 x 21 1/8 x 16 5/8 in. (130.5 x 53.7 x 42.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of James H. Ricau and Museum purchase
Object number86.490
Not on view
DescriptionMarble standing figure a woman with clinging robes.Label TextJoseph Mozier American (1812-1870) The White Lady of Avenel, modeled ca. 1864, carved 1869 Marble Gift of James H. Ricau and Museum purchase 86.490 America's neoclassical sculptors often took their subjects from contemporary British literature, and particularly from the Romantic poems and Victorian novels that their American patrons liked so much. In his White Lady of Avenel, Joseph Mozier followed this practice by depicting a character from Sir Walter Scott's novel of 1820, The Monastery. The "White Lady" of Scott's novel is a ghost who serves as the patron spirit of the Avenel family, overseeing and protecting its members through the ages. For a time she acts as the guardian of the family's Bible. She hides the Bible in a subterranean grotto, placing it in a fire that miraculously preserves and protects it. In time she relinquishes the Bible to the novel's heroine, admonishing her to "touch it and take it, 'twill dearly be bought!" Her declaration -a reference to the family's future loss of noble status after the embrace the faith- is inscribed on the sculpture's base. Exhibition History"The Ricau Collection," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., February 26 - April 23, 1989. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008.
