Andrew Jackson on Horseback (Primary Title)
Clark Mills, American, 1815 - 1883 (Artist)
Andrew Jackson – country lawyer, military leader, and America’s first populist president – captured the public’s imagination in the antebellum era like no other political personality. Shortly after his death, “Old Hickory” was immortalized by Clark Mills, whose life-size Andrew Jackson on Horseback (1853) was unveiled with fanfare near the White House in Washington, D.C. As the first equestrian statue and the first major bronze sculpture produced in the United States, the monument was primarily celebrated for the careful engineering that permitted the rearing stallion to balance on his hind legs.
In the wake of his great success, Mills engaged the eminent Philadelphia firm of Cornelius and Baker to produce a limited series of small zinc replicas, including this statuette. Each figure was cast in twenty pieces, soldered together, and outfitted with a miniature sword and sheet-metal reins.
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