Ruth

Ives's work combined a restrained and elegant style, based on European classical and Renaissance sculpture, with subjects that imparted a moral message. This approach was shared by many other American expatriate sculptors in Italy, including Harriet Hosmer, Hiram Powers, and William Wetmore Story (whose work also is on display in this room), In the Old Testament story that inspired this sculpture, Ruth traveled to Bethlehem after the death of her husband to harvest wheat for the wealthy farmer Boaz. Boaz grew so impressed with Ruth's modesty and fidelity that he married her. Ives presents Ruth glancing downward in a gesture of humility, wearing simple clothing and unadorned save for a sheaf of wheat woven through her hair. The individualism of Ruth's facial features and the gathered bodice of her gown depart from idealized classical sculpture and suggest that Ives based his Ruth on a studio model who wore fashionable mid-19th century dress.