BRONX SCENE
Edgar Allan Poe sculpture stands in Poe Park
REPRINTED FROM 5-19-2011
Edgar Allan Poe bust at Poe Cottage on the Grand Concourse.
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BRONX TIMES REPORTER,BTR FEBRUARY 14-20, 2020 55
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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