Among the American heroes that are remembered during the nation’s celebration of independence on the Fourth of July, Nathan Hale’s (1755–1776) short-lived martyrdom as a spy for the Continental Army is perhaps one of the darker tales. At only twenty-one years old, the soldier was hanged for treason on September 22, 1776, in then-British-occupied New York. This historical moment is remembered for not what exactly has been recorded but what is presumed to have been uttered by Hale before his death: “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”
Hale’s legacy has been remembered in countless pieces of literature, politician speeches, and even on a United States postage stamp. The young soldier has also been honored numerous times in the grand tradition of monument sculptures and is typically portrayed striking a heroic pose (see Enoch Smith Woods [1846–1919] hand-over-heart statue [completed 1889] at the Connecticut capitol building) or standing in defiance (Bela Lyon Pratt’s [1867–1917] bound figure with a brave stare). However, the most well-known memorial of Hale is a bronze by American sculptor Frederick William MacMonnies (1863–1937). His Nathan Hale (1890) exudes a somber mood, taking place shortly after he gave his purported last words. The figure stands with feet and arms bound, eyes closed, and palms opened. He appears as if he has taken his last breath and is waiting for his death.
MacMonnies’s Hale is both tragic and beautiful, yet likely not a factual depiction. Like the almost mythical famous phrase that has become his legacy, there is no primary source that accurately portrays Hale’s appearance. When MacMonnies created this statue in response to a competition commissioned by the Sons of the Revolution of the State of New York for a monument of Hale, he conjured a romanticized appearance of an ideal American hero (physically fit with a strong jaw and angular face), which ultimately won him the prize. The sculptor believed his artwork “should be so conceived as an ideal that the figure should symbolize the life-work of the subject.” Not present is the powder burn on Hale’s face when he was captured by the British, and the schoolteacher attire he wore as a disguise would have been torn and disheveled by the time he was hanged.
MacMonnies sourced this image of an American hero from his own background. Born in Brooklyn to an American mother, who may have been related to the British-American artist Benjamin West (1738–1820), and a Scottish-born father financially devastated by the Civil War, MacMonnies had to work throughout his childhood, but he did find joy sculpting little figures from wax. At the age of sixteen, he discovered his artistic calling while serving as a studio assistant for Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907), apprenticing with him for five years. His time spent in Saint-Gaudens’ studio was incredibly impactful to the young MacMonnies, who viewed the Irish-American sculptor as a father figure. According to Rilla Evelyn Jackman in American Arts (1928), Saint-Gaudens found the boy his most “unusual” pupil.
With the financial backing and artistic experience of his work at the Saint-Gaudens’ studio, MacMonnies honed his craft in evening classes at the National Academy of Design and the Cooper Union. Beginning in 1884, he made multiple trips to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts, as Saint-Gaudens had done decades earlier, and worked in the studios of French sculptors Antonin Mercié (1845–1916) and Alexandre Falguière (1831–1900), whom his emotive artworks particularly mirrored.
By the time MacMonnies crafted Nathan Hale, he was only twenty-six and was already well known for his nude bronze interpretation of the Greek deity Diana (modeled 1889), which garnered him an honorable mention at the 1889 Paris Salon. Nathan Hale brought him further success at the Paris Salon in 1891, when he presented large-scale plaster models of the sculpture and a bronze of New York politician James S. T. Stranahan (1890–1891) and won a second-class gold medal, earning him recognition as the first American to win such an award. Later, in 1893, the “model monument,” as the Hale sculpture was referred to by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1965, was dedicated by the Sons of the Revolution of New York State and affixed to a pedestal made by American architect Stanford White (1853–1906). It was moved to various locations across New York City—due to uncertainties about precisely where Hale had been executed—until it was placed at its current location near the entrance to City Hall Plaza.
Smaller castings of Nathan Hale were created by Jaboeuf et Bezout E. Gruet Jeune Foundries in Paris and Roman Bronze Works in New York and are now housed in collections that include the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Those interested in seeing one of these castings can head to Debra Force Fine Art Gallery, a short train or taxi trip north from the City Hall original. But be aware that despite the smaller size of the piece, it carries the same emotional weight as the original. MacMonnies once said about this famous sculpture, “I wanted to make something that would set the bootblacks and little clerks around there [New York City] thinking—something that would make them want to be somebody and find life worth living.”
