User:Twchalwick/Bust of Sherman Minton

The bust of Sherman Minton is a public artwork by American artist Robert Merrell Gage, located on the second floor of the Indiana Statehouse, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Cast in bronze in 1956, it was commisioned to honor Indiana native Sherman Minton shortly after his retirement from the position of United States Supreme Court Associate Justice.

Description
The bust is made from cast bronze and depicts the subject from the lower shoulders up, clad in a judicial robe. Minton is depicted as middle-aged, mustached, with a moderately receded hairline. His head is rotated slightly to the proper left. Slightly larger than life-size, the piece is 30.25 inches wide at the shoulders, 11.5 inches wide at the head, 24 inches high, and 11.75 inches deep. It is mounted on a stone block in a semi-cylindrical niche. Affixed to the front of the block is a bronze plaque which reads:

Historical information
Commissioned by then-governor of Indiana George N. Craig, the piece was unveiled on December 21, 1956 at a ceremony which featured as speakers both Gov. Craig and William Fitzgerald, president of the Indiana State Bar Association at that time.

Location history
Cast in New York and transported to Indianapolis, the bust was originally housed in a prominent niche outside the governor’s office at the statehouse rotunda, displacing a plaster bust of George Washington which was moved to an upper floor. A 1976 catalog lists the bust’s location at the statehouse as the southwest corner pier facing south, which continues to be its current location as of 2010.

Artist
A native of Topeka, Kansas, sculptor Robert Merrell Gage (December 26, 1892 – October 30, 1981) was noted for his numerous public art commissions. His first such commission was for a statue of Abraham Lincoln that is now on the grounds of the Kansas State Capitol. He eventually became a professor of sculpture at the University of Southern California, and it was during his tenure there that he was commissioned to produce the Sherman Minton bust.