BRONX SCENE
Edgar Allan Poe sculpture stands in Poe Park
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, JANUARY 3 BTR 1-FEBRUARY 6, 2020 59
REPRINTED FROM 5-19-2011
Edgar Allan Poe bust at Poe Cottage on the Grand Concourse.
The Poe Cottage and Poe Park have
been undergoing extensive restoration
work and will soon be opening
to the public. Located on the Grand
Concourse between 193rd and 194th
Streets, the cottage, tended by the
Bronx County Historical Society, is
home to a bronze bust of Edgar Allan
Poe created by Edmund T. Quinn.
The original work of art was created
in plaster in 1908. A duplicate bronze
bust was donated to the City of New
York on January 19, 1909 to honor the
centenary of Poe’s birth.
The plaster cast of the bust was
given to the Poe Museum in 1931 and
put on display on the grounds of the
cottage. It remained there until 1987
when it must have wandered off because
police later found it in a nearby
saloon. It was seated on the bar at the
aptly named Raven Inn with a beer in
front of it along with a copy of Poe’s
poem “The Spirit of the Dead.” The police
escorted the Poe sculpture back to
his cottage on the Concourse and there
it remained until it was replaced with
a bronze version which was moved inside
the cottage to prevent it from wandering
off again. The bust stands 21”
high and is mounted on a 6’6” pedestal.
The sculpture was fashioned at the
Aubry Brothers Foundry and donated
by the Bronx Society of Arts and Sciences.
Edmund Thomas Quinn (1868-1929)
was a leading sculptor of the day and
four of his works adorn the Hall of
Fame of Great Americans located at
Bronx Community College. They include
a bust of Edwin Thomas Booth.
Booth was the leading Shakespearean
actor of the day who was plagued
by the action of his infamous brother,
John Wilkes Booth. Nonetheless, he
became known as the most popular actor
in America. His other works of art
at the Hall of Fame include busts of Oliver
Wendell Holmes, James Kent and
John Quincy Adams, our sixth president.
His most famous work is the full size
bronze statue of Edwin Booth dressed
as Hamlet. It was sculpted in 1918 and
was commissioned by the Players Club.
That club took up residence at Booth’s
home near Gramercy Park. Perhaps
that’s why the famed park was chosen
as the site of the statue which stands in
the center of the park. The park is not
open to the public and I’ve only managed
to enter it on one occasion for a
close up look.
There is another great work of
Quinn’s by the pond in Central Park.
This bust of Victor Herbert was created
in 1927 and was commissioned
by ASCAP and unveiled by Herbert’s
daughter, Ella, on November 29, 1927.
One of his earlier works, Figure of a
Nymph, resides at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art and was created in
1912. He also created the Victory Memorial
of World War I in Faneuil Park,
New Rochelle in 1921. Other works can
be found throughout the country.
The intriguing fact about Quinn
is that he was originally trained as
a painter and among his many subjects
was Attilio Piccirilli, the famous
sculptor. Attilio lived and shared his
studio with his brothers at 467 East
142nd Street here in the Bronx. I often
wondered whether that oil painting of
Piccirilli led to his interest in sculpting.
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