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SPECIAL SECTION /THE FIGURE IN ART
1
Adams Memorial, Rock
Creek Cemetery, Section
E, entrance at Webster
Street & Rock Creek
Church Road Northwest,
Washington, D.C. Historic
American Buildings
Survey, Engineering
Record, Landscapes
Survey. Library of
Congress Prints and
Photographs Division,
Washington, D.C.2
Serge Marshennikov,
In the Twilight, oil on
linen, 22 x 15". Courtesy
T.H. Brennen Fine Art,
Scottsdale, Arizona.1A
n inscrutable bronze sculpture
of a draped figure marks
the grave of Clover Adams
in Rock Creek Cemetery in
Washington, D.C. Marian “Clover” Hooper
Adams (1843-1885) was the wife of Henry
Adams (1838-1918), the great-grandson of
President John Adams (1735-1826).
Adams commissioned Augustus Saint-
Gaudens (1848-1907) to create a memorial
for Clover, advising him to consider
the ideas of Buddhist thought and,
especially, the figure of the bodhisattva
Avalokitesvara who embodied
compassion. Avalokitesvara is oftenrepresented in Chinese art as a woman
robed in white.
The sculpture is in a setting Stanford
White (1853-1906) designed as a place for
contemplation. Sunlight casts a shadow
over the figure, rendering it genderless.
The figure itself is androgynous when it
becomes visible. The drapery appears as
a funeral shroud, refers to Avalokitesvara,
and adds to the aura of mystery. The
public calls it Grief and Saint-Gaudens
referred to it tortuously as The Mystery of
the Hereafter and The Peace of God that
Passeth Understanding.
Adams wrote to the artist’s son, “Donot allow the world to tag my figure with
a name! Every magazine writer wants
to label it as some American patent
medicine for popular consumption—
Grief, Despair, Pear’s Soap, or Macy’s
Mens’ Suits Made to Measure. Your
father meant it to ask a question, not
to give an answer; and the man who
answers will be damned to eternity like
the men who answered the Sphinx.”
Drapery in art can refer to many
things, it can indicate modesty and it
can be used as the subject itself as in
extraordinary drawings by Leonardo
da Vinci and the contemporary glass