William Tilden Blodgett

John Quincy Adams Ward

1865 · Marble · The American Wing

William Tilden Blodgett (1823–1875), a prominent Manhattan entrepreneur and philanthropist, sat for his portrait bust in 1865. Blodgett appears with fashionable muttonchop sideburns and wavy hair, yet Ward coupled this realistic treatment with a classicizing bare-chested termination on a round socle. Both Ward and Blodgett were founding trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and worked together to acquire the paintings and sculptures that formed the nucleus of the Museum’s collection.

Artist

John Quincy Adams Ward

Date

1865

Medium

Marble

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. John Quincy Adams Ward, 1910