Thomas Ridgeway Gould American 1818 - 1881

For more information about this sculpture, see Seeing America: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, essay 21, by Cynthia Culbert, Assistant Curator, or go to www.mag.rochester.edu/seeingAmerica.

From the curator's card:

thumb|right|150px|Profile view thumb|right|150px|Detail view The West Wind, 1876
Marble

Gift of the Isaac Gordon Estate through the
Lincoln Rochester Trust Company, 66.18

Who was the West Wind? In Greek mythology
the West Wind was Zephyrus, one of the four
wind gods. Perhaps the maker of this work, who
was influenced by the mythological subects that
he saw in Italy, was describing the West Wind by
showing its effect on the figure's hair and skirt.
Another interpretation suggests that the sculpture
is an idealized expression of the United State's
westward expansion. This sculpture or another version of it was exhibited at the
Centennial Exhibition in Philladelpia on the
occasion of the nation's hundredth birthday in
1876. The starred belt on the waistband of the
figure's clothing could refer to the stars on the
American flag.

When English poet Percy Shelley wrote his Ode to
the West Wind in 1820, he closed it with these
immortal words:

O WInd,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?