Madison Colby (New Hampshire 1842-1871 California)

William Smith, Lewiston, Idaho, by 1878, by repute;

William F. Kettenbach Sr., Lewiston, Idaho, until 1891, by repute;

Thence by descent to his son, William F. Kettenbach Jr., until 1902, by repute;

Collection of the Lewiston National Bank, Lewiston, Idaho, until 1965;

Private Collection, Lewiston, Idaho, until 1974;

Nez Perce County Historical Museum, Lewiston, Idaho, until 2017;

From whom acquired.

San Francisco, Snow & Roos Art Gallery, circa 1869.

Born in 1842, Colby enlisted in the Union army and fought in the American Civil War before being wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862. After he recovered from his injuries, he followed the example of many Neoclassical artists and traveled to Florence to continue his training, where he began to work alongside other American sculptors, such as Larkin Goldsmith Mead and Hiram Powers.

Colby returned to the United States in 1869 and eventually settled in San Francisco. It was there that he exhibited the present pair of reliefs of Morning and Evening at the Snow & Roos Gallery, where the works were warmly received. The art critic Hilda Roosevelt praised them as “remarkable for delicacy of finish and pure and clearly-defined conception.”

After Colby’s death in 1871, the reliefs continued to be shown in San Francisco before eventually finding their way to Lewiston, Idaho. Although the exact circumstances of their relocation remain unclear, it has been suggested that the steamboat captain and timber magnate William Smith transported these roundels to Idaho when establishing his estate. Following Smith’s death, the property was purchased by William F. Kettenbach Sr., owner of the Lewiston National Bank. The house, together with the bank, later passed to his son, William F. Kettenbach Jr., and it was likely Kettenbach Jr. who transferred the roundels from the residence to the bank, where they remained until 1965.

When the bank was demolished, a local artist recognized the significance of the reliefs and preserved them in their collection until 1974, at which point they were donated to the Nez Perce County Historical Museum.

We are grateful to Steven D. Branting, Institutional Historian , Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho, for his research which informs this expertise.