The Edgar Allan Poe Museum has recently acquired a life-sized statue of Edgar Allan Poe produced in 1957 by the artist Charles Rudy. The sculpture, which depicts a seated Poe holding a pen and paper, is Rudy’s plaster model for the bronze statue now in the Virginia State Capitol Square. This is the first full-length sculpture to enter the Poe Museum. The piece is a gift from the James A. Michener Art Museum in Honor of Lorraine Rudy.
According to Poe Museum Curator Chris Semtner, “This is a major addition to the Museum’s collection not only because it is one of a few full-length life-sized statues of Poe available but also because it is the model for the first public statue of Poe in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Poe Museum’s founders attempted to fund the creation of a Poe statue in Richmond, Virginia in 1906, but it was not until Philadelphia physician George Edward Barksdale commissioned this statue in 1957 that Richmond received its own Poe statue. Now visitors to the city will be able to see both the finished bronze and the plaster model.”
The Poe Museum is currently conserving the statue (which arrived in thirteen pieces) in preparation for its first public exhibition in the exhibit Poe 3-D, which will run from June 26 to October 19, 2014. The exhibit will also feature busts of Poe by George Julian Zolnay, Edmund Quinn, and others.
The exhibit will open on June 26 from 6 to 9 P.M. during the Poe Museum’s monthly Unhappy Hour, which features live music by Lost Dreads, performances, and refreshments.