Boy and Girl with Goat - Fredericksburg VA - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures on Waymarking.com

A concrete statue of a boy and girl with a goat stands on a stone base in the gardens at Chatham Manor across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, VA. A bearded goat with horns lays down with his right leg stretched out in front and his left leg bent under him. A girl is seated to the left of the goat with both her legs bent in front and her left hand reaching out to the goat. On the goat's right, a boy sits on a tree stump with his right foot reaching the ground and and his left foot dangling. The boy's left arm reaches out barely touching the girl's head and he holds a small horn to his mouth with his right arm. Fabric is loosely draped around the waists of the boy and girl. There is no design or inscription on the pedestal. The sculptor is unknown, although according to Chatham a landscape introduction, the statuary came from Kenneth Lynch & Sons. It is dated c. 1930.

Chatham Manor was originally built in the late 1700s. It went through several owners and changes over the next 150 years, including devastating damage during the Civil War, until the 1920s when Daniel and Helen Devore bought the property and began its restoration. They hired a landscape architect who extensively used statuary on the grounds, most notably in the gardens as accents and to draw visitors along the paths.¹

Today, the National Park Service owns the property. Although changes have been made to the original, ornate landscaping, some of the sculptures from the Devore years still remain, including Boy and Girl with Goat. Chatham is open daily from 9 AM to 4:30 PM. Admission is free.

¹ Gardens lost in time « HORTUS 2

TITLE: (Boy and Girl with Goat) ARTIST(S): Unknown DATE: c. 1930 MEDIUM: Concrete CONTROL NUMBER: IAS VA000052 Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link] PHYSICAL LOCATION: In the gardens at Chatham: 120 Chatham Lane Fredericksburg, VA 22405 DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH: According to SIRIS, the "boy holds up his proper right arm to suck on the thumb". The boy actually holds a horn to his mouth. If the statue is the original from the Devore years, it is probably from several years earlier than 1930. The NPS auctioned many of the statues when acquiring Chatham in the 1970s, but replaced the originals from the same source, Kenneth Lynch & Sons, in the 1980s. If this is one of the replacements, it would be c. 1980.

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