Funeral Monument for Anthony Shimer, 1897
Morris Cemetery, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
Vital Statistics
Bronze statue, life size, on granite pedestal,
Signed
on base beneath figure’s left foot: “W. T. Trego”
Morris Cemetery, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
Commentary
Anthony
J. Shimer, a florist by trade, left a sum of money in his will for the creation
of a monument. His executors, H. H.
Gilkyson and L. B. Kaler, chose Trego after being urged to do so by Harrison S.
Morris and Edward Coates of the Pennsylvania
Academy. Trego’s
neighbor, Alexander Pickering, holding a flower pot, posed for the deceased
Anthony Shimer. A surviving
photograph shows Trego posing with the clay matrix
for this work in his studio. It is unknown where the statue was cast. The
statue is the only full size and finished work of sculpture by Trego known to
exist.
Reference
“Mr.
Kaler, who has no knowledge of art imagines that because I have no reputation
as a professional sculptor, not withstanding he likes the model I have sent
them, I am incapable of executing so simple a thing. You know that during my
student life at the Academy under Eakins, a large amount of time was devoted to
modeling in clay and the study of external anatomy. I was a conscientious
worker in both departments and at one time
thought
seriously of becoming a sculptor.” (Letter of Wm. T. Trego to Harrison S.
Morris, 1 May 1897, PAFA). “The statue done by Will Trego is of an old
Phoenixville citizen whose estate was settled by my father, H. H. Gilkyson, Sr.
The statue was done . . . at the suggestion of my mother, Nellie Trego
Gilkyson, who was a first cousin of Will Trego and knew that he would create
something desirable to mark the grave of my father’s client, Anthony Shimer,
who had just died.” (Letter of Hamilton
H. Gilkyson Jr. to Mrs. Jean B. Durell, 28 September 1971, BCHS)
Condition
The
statue and base both seem to be in sound condition, but the bronze figure is
suffering from more than twelve decades of exposure to weather and pollution.
The surface is quite stained and corroded in some areas.
Bust of a Distant Relative, n. d. >
