In his studio in Rome in 1845, artist Nathan Flint Baker (1820–1891) put the finishing touches on a white marble sculpture, a life-sized female nude representing the Roman goddess Egeria. It was an ambitious project for the 25-year-old American who had moved to Italy just a few years before. Training briefly in Florence under the renowned expatriate sculptor Hiram Powers (1805–1873), Baker set out for Rome to join the international community of artists who lived and worked alongside the remnants of the city’s Classical past. 

Both Baker and Powers hailed from Cincinnati, a boom town in the early 1800s, whose citizens sought not only economic prosperity but cultural attainments. Baker’s father—who made his fortune in lumber and real estate—sent the young artist abroad to learn the art of sculpture and to bring some of his artistic output home.

After completing Egeria (1845), Baker shipped his sculpture to the U.S., first to the Boston Athenaeum for display, and then to Cincinnati’s Western Art Union gallery. A local businessman purchased the work in 1849 and promptly gifted the statue to the recently founded Spring Grove Cemetery & Arboretum.

You can still see Egeria—one of the oldest works of public art in Cincinnati—in Spring Grove today. The figure stands on a pedestal constructed of piled, rough-hewn rock overlooking Geyser Lake. The white marble surface is now discolored and pock marked; the details of hair, face, and clothing are worn from decades of exposure to wind, rain, and snow. The figure’s right arm is missing just below the shoulder, and the left hand’s fingers have eroded. Yet despite Egeria’s current condition, the sculpture’s graceful figure still captivates. The form is likely inspired by the famous Venus de Milo (discovered in 1820) and reflects the influences of Neoclassicism, the prevailing aesthetic of Baker’s time, when artists and architects drew inspiration from ancient Greece and Rome.

Looking at Egeria’s deteriorated condition, it is difficult to appreciate Baker’s extraordinary skills as a sculptor; but another work by the artist, Portrait of a Woman, possibly Egeria (1845), resides inside the Cincinnati Art Museum and shows Baker’s skillful hand at rendering detail and texture in white marble (a somewhat unforgiving medium!) Alongside this bust, you can also view works by Baker’s mentor, Powers, including his marble busts of Proserpine (1843–45) and The Greek Slave (1841–43) which likely inspired Baker.

Before moving back to the States, Baker journeyed with friend and collaborator Leavitt Hunt to experiment with a new art form. Traveling to Egypt, the Middle East, and Greece from 1851–52, the duo created some of the earliest photographic images of sites across the ancient world, including the Egyptian pyramids and the Greek Acropolis. Before they left on this groundbreaking expedition, Baker and Hunt practiced capturing historic sites in Rome, including the ruins of the Forum, using this new medium. 

After his adventures abroad, Baker returned to Cincinnati in 1853 to manage his family’s business interests. He practiced sculpture sporadically in the States, and although well-known in Cincinnati, was never recognized on the national stage. 

Egeria, however, lives on in Spring Grove’s “museum without walls” and serves as a reminder of the nearly forgotten artist and Cincinnati’s earliest cultural aspirations.