Henry Merwin Shrady (1871-1922)
General Robert E. Lee on Traveler, circa 1920
Bronze
18 1/2 x 19 x 5 inches
Inscribed lower right: H.M. SHRADY
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Born in New York City, Henry Shrady is acclaimed for creating important Civil War memorials, as well as bronze sculptures of western wildlife and Native Americans. The son of a prominent physician, Shrady studied law at Columbia University, but illness prevented him from entering practice. He originally pursued painting and drawing as a hobby, sketching animals at the city's zoos and pet shops. His first attempt at sculpture, Artillery Going Into Action, was a complex model of six horses and riders pulling a caisson and cannon. Upon seeing a sketch of this work, an employee of the Gorham Company encouraged the young artist to pursue a career in sculpture. As a result, Shrady's earliest sculptural works, Bull Moose and Elk Buffalo (also know as Monarch of the Plains), were cast in bronze by Gorham and sold by the Theodore B. Starr Company. These sculptures were seen by the famous American sculptor Karl Bitter, who offered Shrady studio space and persuaded him to enter important competitions, including the 1901 Pan American Exhibit in Buffalo, New York.

In 1902, Shrady, a relative unknown, received the $250,000 commission for what would become his life work. Over fifty well known American artists vied for the honor of creating the Appomattox Memorial to General Ulysses S. Grant in Washington D.C. This massive work depicting a calvary charge on a marble platform took Shrady more than twenty years to complete.

Shrady's second key commission was for the creation of an equestrian statue of General Robert E. Lee on his mount, Traveler. This example is one of three bronze models cast by the Roman Bronze Works foundry of New York City for the artist prior to casting the monument. Shrady presented one of these models to the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, while the other is in the permanent collection of the R. W. Norton Gallery of Art in Shreveport, Louisiana. Sadly, Shrady did not live to see the completion of either of his large commissions, dying in New York City while both were being cast.

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