Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Gould, Thomas R.

GOULD, Thomas R., sculptor, b. in Boston, Mass., in 1818; d. in Florence, Italy, 26 Nov., 1881. In his early life he was engaged with his brother in the dry-goods business, and was an active member of the Mercantile library association. He did not devote himself to art until in later life. His only master was Seth Cheney, in whose studio he modelled his first figure in 1851. He followed his profession in Boston until 1868, and among the works that he produced were two colossal heads, “Christ” and “Satan,” both of which were exhibited at the Boston athenaeum in 1863, but afterward removed to Mr. Gould's studio in Florence. James J. Jarves, in his “Art Thoughts,” mentions the “Christ,” in its character of an opposing conception to “Satan,” as “one of the finest idealisms in modern sculpture.” Previous to the civil war, Mr. Gould had acquired a moderate fortune, which he lost in the exigencies of the succeeding crisis. In 1868 he went to Italy, and settled with his family in Florence, where he devoted himself to study and work. One of his most celebrated statues is “The West Wind,” in marble, which has been several times reproduced, and was brought into special prominence in 1874, through a charge that it was a reproduction of Canova's “Hebe,” with the exception of the drapery, which was modelled by Signor Mazzoli. Animated newspaper correspondence followed this charge, and it was proved groundless. Mr. Gould declared that his designs were entirely his own, and that not a statue, bust, or medallion was allowed to leave his studio until finished in all points on which depended their character and expression. A copy of the “West Wind” was at the Centennial exhibition, Philadelphia, in 1876. He returned to Boston in the spring of 1878. Among Mr. Gould's works are a number of portrait busts, including one of Emerson, now in Harvard university library; one of John A. Andrew, belonging to Mrs. Andrew; one of Seth Cheney, owned by John Cheney, of Connecticut; and one of the elder Booth. In statuary he has produced “Cleopatra,” “Timon of Athens,” “Ariel,” a portrait statue of “John Hancock,” which was exhibited at the centennial celebration of the battle of Lexington in 1875, and is now in Lexington town-hall. His portrait statue of John A. Andrew, a commission from the soldiers of the Grand army of the Republic, was placed beside the grave of that statesman in the Hingham cemetery, Massachusetts, in 1875. In 1878 Mr. Gould visited Boston, and exhibited “The Ghost in Hamlet,” a front view of a head in alto-rilievo. The two alti-rilievi representing “Steam” and “Electricity,” which flank the vestibule of the Boston “Herald” building, were among his latest works.