Pietro Calvi Italian, 1833-1884

Harriet Beecher Stowe first published Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852. The work was originally regarded as a powerful polemic against slavery, but the eponymous central character has in recent decades been blamed for undermining the struggle for black freedom. However, there is an increasing rehabilitation of Uncle Tom as the epicentre of a massive cultural phenomenon which still affects the relationship between blacks and whites in the United States.

By 1860 the book had sold two million copies and Abraham Lincoln is said to have remarked, on meeting Stowe in 1862 'So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war'. It was hailed as a masterpiece by Victor Hugo and Leo Tolstoy and is said to have been Lenin's favourite childhood book.

Calvi's most famous compositions combine different materials to create a rich colouristic effect, such as his bust of Othello and as seen in the present bust.

RELATED LITERATURE
G. Younge , 'Don't Blame Uncle Tom', The Guardian Saturday Review, 30 March 2002, pp.1-2; Panzetta vol.1, p.71; Vicario vol.1, p.227