Attributed to Joel Tanner Hart (1810-77), Kentucky. Alexander Hamilton Stephens (11 February 1812-4 March 1883) was a Georgia lawyer and politician, considered one of the most brilliant legal minds of his generation. Born in Wilkes Co., GA (later Taliaferro Co.), he was educated at the Washington GA Male Academy and the University of Georgia. Orphaned at fourteen, his education was paid for by the citizens of the town. He settled in nearby Crawfordville in 1834 after reading law and developed a thriving practice. Two years later he was elected to the Georgia State House of Representatives and in 1842 to the State Senate. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1843 as a member of the Whig Party. He supported the annexation of Texas but opposed the Mexican War. He endorsed the Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Bill and concept of popular sovereignty. By the end of the 1850s, Stephens was perhaps the most influential Southerner in Congress. He thought secession an unwise course of action but accepted his home state of GeorgiaÕs decision. He helped compose the Constitution of the new Confederate States and was named Vice President. He frequently opposed President Jefferson DavisÕ decisions and their association was generally contentious. Stephens was a delegate to the unsuccessful Hampton Roads Peace Conference in early 1865. After the Civil War he spent four months as a prisoner of the Union at Fort Warren, Boston harbor. In 1867 he began his two-volume history, A Constitutional View of the Late War between the States, which was published in 1868 and 1870. In 1872 he was re-elected to the House of Representatives and served ten years. Georgia Democrats then elected him Governor of Georgia. He died in March 1883 only four months after his inauguration. Perhaps no other Georgia political figure of the 19th century was more beloved and respected. He was chosen as a Georgia honoree at the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol with a large statue of a seated older Stephens sculpted by Gutzon Borglum placed there in 1927. Borglum is best known as designer/sculptor of Mount Rushmore and Stone Mountain. A bust of Stephens is in the Old Hall (House of Delegates) at the Virginia State Capitol honoring his time as Confederate Vice President. There is also a monumental statue of him at the Alexander H. Stephens State Park in Crawfordville, GA, placed in 1893 and credited to Borglum and T. Markwalter, an Augusta marble and granite dealer. The life-size bust of Stephens offered here is of a vibrant young legislator in classical draping signifying the Greco-Roman origins of democracy. Its manner and style bear strong similarities to the work of Joel Tanner Hart (1810-77), a Kentucky-born sculptor who settled in Florence, Italy. Among his known works are busts of Henry Clay (at the Brooklyn Museum) and Andrew Jackson which share an almost identical base as the Alexander Stephens piece. Hart also sculpted busts of John J. Crittenden and Cassius M. Clay, both prominent Kentucky politicians, among several others, some of which are at the Kentucky Historical Society. All were done by Hart from the mid-1840s to early 1850s. Stephens, while in Congress, was mentored and guided by Henry Clay, a fellow Whig. He also was a close friend of Crittenden. It is an assumption, of course, but a plausible one, that Stephens certainly would have known of HartÕs work and had ample opportunity to commission such a bust for himself. The stone appears to be a fine Italian marble of similar quality to that of the Henry Clay bust. The size is comparable to that of Hart's other classical-style busts on pedestal. This is a significant example of 19th century American sculpture featuring one of that century's most important political figures.

H25 1/7" W17". From a North Georgia, private collection. good overall condition with no restoration. small chip to back of base top section (as seen in photos). some scattered stains.