The sculpture Mark Twain and His Characters by Walter Russell has been off view since 2019 following the decision that it was in too poor of condition to remain on display. The plaster model is fragile and over the years has suffered from chipping, losses (like Tom’s hand), and a major hole in the surface support.
Thanks to a 1:1 matching pledge up to $5,000 by Michael J. Dury, former MTH&M Board President, we are now fundraising to have the sculpture conserved, restored, and put back on display with new reading-rail signage. Please consider a donation for this matching gift HERE.
The conservation and restoration will be completed by Skylight Studios out of Massachusetts this winter. Given the sculpture’s weight and fragility the work will be done onsite in the Museum’s collections space and will involve several trips by the conservator to the Mark Twain House there complete the work. The chips and losses will be filled with plaster, spackle, or a plastic filler. The areas of fill and unstable paint will be touched up with acrylic paint. A clay model of the missing arm and hand will be molded and attached. And the hole in the base will be filled in and stabilized.
Local graphic designer Joe Philippon has been contracted for the signage design, which will include information about the sculpture, the artist, and a key of the characters seen around Twain.
About the sculpture:
Mark Twain’s daughter, Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch, and the Mark Twain Memorial Society commissioned artist Walter Russell to create a monument to Mark Twain in time for the 1935 centennial of the author’s birth. It was Russell’s hope that his sculpture would contribute to the author’s literary legacy.
“Mark Twain has left an indelible impress upon this and future ages. His characters have had as much to do with shaping the thought of our civilization as the real people of flesh and blood who fought in our wars, or gave us our philosophies. The sculptured characters…will forever help to keep this great author’s name haloed by his fellow man throughout the world.”
Russell’s original design for the monument called for a circular masonry structure, 110 feet in diameter, overlooking a shallow pool. The focal point was a seated statue of Twain holding Tom Sawyer, surrounded by characters from his works. A scale model of this central grouping (similar to the one seen at right) was first exhibited at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York in 1930.
Five cities vied to be chosen for the site of the memorial: New York City, New York; Washington, D.C.; Hannibal, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; and Hartford, Connecticut. The Anheiser-Busch Company actively campaigned in support of St. Louis, and even Italian Premier Benito Mussolini contributed $200 toward their fundraising effort. Ultimately, Clara, Russell, and other financial backers decided on Hannibal as the most logical choice.
The full-scale monument was never produced. The nation’s financial crisis, due to the Depression, made raising the $500,000 construction costs impossible. Today, only three scale models for the central portion of this monument exist; the one here at The Mark Twain House & Museum, one at the Mark Twain Library in Redding, Connecticut, and one at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal, Missouri.
About the artist:
Walter Bowman Russell (May 19, 1871 – May 19, 1963) was an American impressionist painter,