Peri at the Gates of Paradise

Thomas Crawford began carving architectural ornaments and funerary monuments about 1832 for the firm of Frazee and Launitz in New York. In 1835 he traveled to Rome, where he spent virtually the rest of his life. Initially he modeled portrait busts of Americans on the Grand Tour and studied under the Neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorwaldsen. His first major work, "Orpheus and Cerberus" (1843), was exhibited to great acclaim in Boston. For the next decade, before his life was cut short by a brain tumor, Crawford's ideal, classically inspired figures were sought after by patrons in Europe and America. He produced major sculpture groups for the city of Richmond, Virginia, and for the U. S. Capitol. "Peri" is a variant of the angelic theme popular with American sculptors of the mid-nineteenth century. In this piece, the story of the 'peri,' a fallen angel derived from Persian religious belief, was inspired by an 1817 poem by the Irish writer Thomas Moore. Although in Crawford's marble, she appears calm and restful, in the poem she is disconsolate after repeated attempts to regain entrance to paradise. She succeeds only after offering the tears of a repentant sinner to God. The work, completed by Crawford's studio assistants, was commissioned by the Philadelphian Arthur A. Burt.