The Falling Gladiator

William Rimmer, The Falling Gladiator, 1861, plaster, 64 x 43 ¹⁄₈ x 40 ¹⁄₄ in. (162.5 x 109.5 x 104.8 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Caroline Hunt Rimmer, 1915.5.1

Free to use

Artwork Details

Title: The Falling Gladiator
Artist: William Rimmer
Date: 1861
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
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2nd Floor
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East Wing
Dimensions: 64 x 43 ¹⁄₈ x 40 ¹⁄₄ in. (162.5 x 109.5 x 104.8 cm.)
Credit Line: Gift of Caroline Hunt Rimmer
Mediums: plaster
Mediums Description: plaster
Classifications: Sculpture
Subjects: Figure male — nude
State of being — death
History — ancient — Rome
Occupation — sport — athlete
Object Number: 1915.5.1
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1915.5.1

Artwork Description

William Rimmer based this sculpture of a mortally wounded man on works from ancient Greece and Rome. But its subject echoed the suffering of the United States on the eve of war. When the artist began work in January of 1861, six states had seceded from the Union, and the attack on Fort Sumter was just three months away. Rimmer worked as a doctor, and his critics at first accused him of casting the sculpture on a real human body. As the conflict wore on, however, they praised his representation of torment and suffering, relating it to the grim fate of Americans at war with one another.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006