CC0 · no rights reserved
Young Octavian
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Young Octavian, or Augustus, shows the adopted heir of Julius Caesar. It is a copy of a sculpture in the Vatican galleries that dates from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Many artists copied this piece, and it became so popular that tourists could even order reproductions from a catalogue. Edmonia Lewis’s version was considered to be one of the best available, as described by a descendant of one of her patrons: “[It] seemed to all of us the best reproduction of the original then offered by any artist in Rome.”
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineYoung Octavian. ca. 1873. Edmonia Lewis, born Greenbush (now Rensselaer), NY 1844-died London, England 1907. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Robbins. CC0.
