"Sleeping Children" Sculpture Evokes Tears

Every so often in life, one comes across something so beautiful that it remains forever in the human heart.

While touring the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, a few weeks ago, I saw an exquisite sculpture .

Honestly, I couldn't take my eyes of the the two utterly adorable "Sleeping Children."

It was by an American sculptor, William Henry Rinehart (1825-1874). 

The features of the two precious urchins were utterly priceless and painstakingly executed. 

Wrapped almost in an embrace, even the chubby little hands looked so real.

Their curly hair was perfectly formed.

Unfamiliar with Mr Rinehart's work, I enjoyed finding out more about him, thanks to numerous Internet sites.

I read that he was born in Maryland and worked on his father's farm.  He also became an assistant to a stone cutter and eventually continued his studies in Florence, Italy.

He was an extremely successful sculptor and completed numerous commissions for wealthy clients, according to sources.

He settled permanently in Italy, died of malaria at 49 years of age and is buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

 The first version  of  "Sleeping Children"  was commissioned as a gravesite memorial for two young children of  the Hugh Sisson family. 

Mr. Sisson was a friend and Baltimore patron of the sculptor.

Seeing the sculpture  made tears come to my eyes. 

Just thinking about it gives me the chills. 

It also saddens me to think of children dying due to diseases of that time in history.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum website stated that Mr. Rinehart used living sleeping children as models to create his work of art.

There are at least 25 replicas of the "Sleeping Children," in plaster and marble, according to Wikipedia.

A plaque on the side of the  one in the Hartford art museum stated it was a gift of Lucius A. Barbour.

DO YOU ENJOY LOOKING AT SCULPTURES?