First, who was William Rush? He was America’s first major sculptor, a true original working in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Imagine carving giant wooden ship figureheads, mythical gods, and even a life-size statue of George Washington—all with nothing but raw talent and a chisel. He wasn’t a stuffy European artist; he was a self-taught guy from Philadelphia who just loved to make things.
His most famous piece? The Spirit of '76? Nope! Try the Water Nymph and Bittern, a playful sculpture of a naked woman with a bird. It caused a scandal! But Rush didn’t care—he was too busy having fun pushing the boundaries of American art.
