“The Favored Scholar” by American sculptor John Rogers (1829-1904) sold in March 1873 for between $12 and $18.

 

Though John Rogers was born into a wealthy family of Boston mercantile merchants, his father was not a businessman, and the fortune was lost, never to be regained.  John was not a strong student and left Boston’s English High School after only two years; however, his training gave him enough math, mechanics and surveying to become a mechanic and draftsman which gave him an appreciation for labor and a belief in the equality of women.  As a skilled draftsman, he loved drawing but did not receive any encouragement from family or friends to make it his career.  His job with the Boston Water Works with a salary of $39 a month, however, did bring him a good watch and chain from an uncle!

 

His trips to museums--both at home and abroad--peaked an interest in sculpture, though not traditional classic art.  What catapulted Rogers into his career was a severe cold, which brought on an eye infection, causing him to leave his job.  In April 1849, he met a friend in Boston who showed him a little clay figure the dentist had modeled.  Immediately Rogers bought some “clay for models” at a cost of 30 cents, and his life as a sculptor began.  John Rogers was a realist, interested in the life and character of the common man, but not in the darker side of life.  Each piece he molded had to tell a story, and each one of the 208 known works does just that.

 

John Rogers became known as the “artist of the common people,” and between 1860 and 1893, 80,000 pieces of putty-colored plaster were bought by the American public to adorn their parlors at an average price of $14.

 

The Brick Store Museum has six Rogers Groups sculptures in its collections, as well as the book, John Rogers, The People’s Sculptor: His Life and His Work, by David H. Wallace.  The latter is of particular interest as it also contains a catalogue of Rogers' work.