Eagle

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Eagle
Datec. 1850–1900
Probable placeUnited States
MediumUnidentified wood and paint
Dimensions33 × 60 × 34 in. (83.8 × 152.4 × 86.4 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.55.6
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Folk Art Porch
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

This ferocious-looking eagle typifies the nineteenth-century interpretation of the United States of America’s national symbol. The uncarved upper surfaces of the wings indicate that this example was intended to be viewed from below. While its original usage is not clear, two related examples have maritime associations or are described as pilothouse eagles, suggesting that this eagle may also have ornamented a boat.

Related examples: A smaller example at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., had been used on a Hudson River towboat (Welsh 1965, fig. 11); another, attributed to Charles Brown, has a history of usage on an oyster boat named The City of Bridgeport, advertisement of Greenleaf Antiques, Antiques 121 (April 1982), p. 896; one attributed to William Rush, advertisement of Nathan Liverant and Son, Antiques 124 (October 1983), p. 652. For other related examples classified as pilothouse eagles in the Index of American Design, see Hornung 1972, vol. i, pp. 42–45, nos. 82, 90, 92, 93. No. 93 has a similar wide wingspan, which, like the Bayou Bend example, is reinforced with metal strips applied to the upper side.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


ProvenanceHistory of ownership in Connecticut; Edith Gregor Halpert (1900–1970), New York; [American Folk Art Gallery, New York City]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1955; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History"American Made: 250 Years of American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 7 July 2012–2 January 2013.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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