A rare spectacle

Spotting a statue in the Capitol is as simple as walking from one hall to the next. To encounter a statue with eyeglasses, however, is much less likely. 

Positioned outside Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) second-floor office, a noticeably white crystalline marble bust of 27th Vice President James S. Sherman portrays him with deeply set eyes that peer through the frames of his perfectly circular spectacles. 

{mosads}The eyeglasses are perhaps the most fascinating part of the sculpture because artists generally avoid them, said Melinda Smith, the associate Senate curator. The more delicate the detail, she said, the more challenging it is to carve.

“They’re difficult to execute, especially in marble,” she said. Eyeglasses appear much more commonly in bronze statues, such as the Father Damien statue in the Hall of Columns on the House side of the Capitol, Smith said.

For the Sherman bust, sculptress Bessie Potter Vonnoh — the first permanent female member of the National Academy for Design — had some trepidation about including the glasses, Smith said. But Sherman wanted his face represented in a manner familiar to his visitors, she said. 

During his 14 years as chairman of the House Indian Affairs Committee, Native Americans nicknamed him “Father Wau-be-ka-chuck,” which translates to “four eyes.”

“Eyeglasses were such a regular feature of Sherman’s attire,” Smith said. “To make him recognizable, it seemed necessary.”

For her first government commission — how she was selected is unclear — Vonnoh came to Washington in March 1910 and was granted use of the vice president’s Senate room.

Vonnoh had the rare opportunity to create her sculpture while her subject was still alive, Smith said, noting that many sculptors are limited to working from photographs. 

A circulating myth suggests the 1983 bombing inside the Senate is responsible for the dark blemish stretching approximately two inches along Sherman’s right cheek. The discoloration, however, is not related to the bombing, Smith said.

As her work began on the final marble bust, Vonnoh discovered an imperfection near the surface of the stone. After raising her concern with the Joint Committee on the Library, the “microscopic” speck was determined insignificant.

“This is a great example of the unpredictability of the flaws of marble,” Smith said.