A white-toned, blocklike sculpture with rough areas and three highly polished nude figures emerging from the rough portions. In front, a mournful man and woman grasp tightly at each other's hands while from behind, another figure buries his head in his own crossed arms, the woman's upturned hand holding onto them.

The Solitude of the Soul

modeled in plaster 1901; sculpted in marble 1914

Lorado Taft American, 1860–1936

United States

The Neoclassicism of the sculptors Harriet Hosmer and Randolph Rogers was replaced in the second half of the 19th century by the more realistic naturalism of French-trained sculptors such as Lorado Taft. An instructor in modeling at the School of the Art Institute for 20 years, Taft created public monuments for Chicago that made the city a center for sculpture. The figures in this work are only partly freed from the marble, a technique that emphasizes the mass and outline of the stone. Explaining The Solitude of the Soul, Taft wrote, “The thought is the eternally present fact that however closely we may be thrown together by circumstances . . . we are unknown to each other.”

Marble

SAIC Alumni and Faculty

Arts of the Americas