Also called "Father Christmas"

This sculpture is a mystery in Rogers' otherwise well-documented oeuvre, since it cannot be securely dated. In the early 1890s the artist began to experience difficulties with his hands that began as uncontrollable shaking and eventually developed into a progressive paralysis. He was forced to retire in 1893. He sold the rights to his groups to William Brush, the longtime foreman of his plaster shop. The subsequent Rogers Statuette Co. was short-lived, publishing its last known catalogue in 1895. The Bath appeared in the catalogues for 1894 and 1895. The group depicts a domestic subject that is much more intimate than his other groups. Rogers' scenes from everyday life usually show children and adults either out of doors (Going for the Cows), interacting with the wider world (School Days, Weighing the Baby), or, if they are indoors, entertaining guests (The Tap on the Window, The Mock Trial). Rogers almost never showed the family in private moments. The only other exception is Playing Doctor of 1872, which depicts three of his children acting out adult roles wearing their parents' clothing. The Bath depicts a very personal moment when the family is not on public view, whether out and about or receiving guests at home. A mother gazes lovingly at two of her children, one of whom is in the tub, while the other, nearly naked with one arm out of his undershirt, assists by squeezing a sponge over his sibling's head. The group is also anomalous in its startling size: at twenty-seven inches, it is considerably taller than all of his indoor sculptures of the period except his statue of George Washington, a monument in miniature created in 1875 for the country's centennial celebrations the following year. It is unclear whether Rogers would have been physically capable of modeling a group at the time The Bath was offered to the public, so some authorities posit that this may be an earlier group that was never published. If the artist used his own wife and children as models, as he often did, the apparent ages of the mother and children would suggest a date about 1870. It may have been originally intended strictly for the family circle and not for public distribution, and perhaps Rogers felt compelled to release it decades later for financial reasons. A 1934 biography of Rogers commented that the group was criticized when it was released to the public for being "too nude," and it was quickly withdrawn. There is no contemporary evidence to support this, but the authors were in contact with some of Rogers' children, and an introductory letter from his daughter Katherine Rogers assures the reader that the authors' accounts are "in accordance with the facts and family traditions as we know them," so this may be the recollection of a family member decades later.

In this coda to his highly praised Civil War sculptures, Rogers took on a subject that, perhaps unintentionally, alluded to Reconstruction and the difficulties the nation experienced healing the deep rifts of the war. An older man, a Unionist, has come with his granddaughter to cast his vote, but his hand is pushed away from the ballot box by the ex-Confederate election official who is carefully checking his records to see if he can find a way to disqualify the man's vote. Below his desk a revolver lies with casual menace in his hat, ready for use. Rogers intended the group to depict an antebellum incident. The sales catalogue plainly stated: "This represents a voting scene at the South before the war [emphasis added]. An old Unionist has come with his granddaughter, and is about to deposit his vote in the ballot-box; but the Registrar, who is opposed to him in politics, pushes his hand one side [sic], while he examines the Registry to find his name." However, the subject would not have appeared retrospective to his audience, since it paralleled current political strife in the South and dark events surrounding the recent presidential election. David Wallace, Rogers' biographer, has suggested that the artist may have intended to issue the group in time for the 1868 presidential election, but instead it was released in early 1869. Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant ran on the Republican ticket under the slogan, "Let us have peace." In the wake of Vice President Andrew Johnson's impeachment, the Democratic nomination went to New York Governor Horatio Seymour and his running mate, Francis P. Blair, who ran on a platform of white supremacy and opposition to Reconstruction, which had severely limited Southern Democrats' political power. The Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1866, launched a campaign of murder and intimidation throughout the South against Republican leaders, both black and white, and made it virtually impossible for blacks to vote. In the face of unrest in the South, Americans indeed wanted peace; Grant won the election but by a much slimmer margin than was expected. The Springfield Republican considered Challenging the Union Vote a companion to Rogers' Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations of 1865 (1926.34, 1936.654), which showed a dignified Southern woman swearing her allegiance to the Union before a polite Northern soldier in exchange for food for her child. But where Taking the Oath offered a vision of national reconciliation based on mutual respect, Challenging the Union Vote seems to despair of the possibility. In this surprisingly pessimistic vision in Rogers' oeuvre there is no moral lesson, no call to action for the betterment of society, only the offended Unionist, the contemptuous ex-Confederate, the worried, vulnerable granddaughter, and the pistol symbolizing not only the potential for violence but the reign of terror that resulted in literally thousands of deaths related to the election. Though it is not initially apparent to twenty-first-century viewers, Challenging the Union Vote was probably interpreted as a grim commentary on post-Civil War America. It is not surprising that the sculpture appears to have sold poorly; surely in the wake of the 1868 election Americans hoped to put violence and strife behind them and, at the very least, would be unlikely to purchase a sculpture for their living rooms that served as a constant reminder. A sophisticated businessman, Rogers may well have known the risk that he took with such a controversial subject, but his impulse toward social commentary apparently trumped commercial concerns. Challenging the Union Vote is now relatively rare and exemplifies the wide range of subjects undertaken by an artist best known for his sunny depictions of American life.

Rogers described this group as follows: "A young man is about starting out on a journey, and, on parting from his lady-love puts an engagement ring on her finger." The man leans on a pillar of stones with one foot atop his suitcase, perhaps waiting for his train. He gazes at a well-dressed young woman, who looks at him appealingly as he places the ring on her finger. Rogers created two variations of the scene: in the original version, the man has a mustache that makes him appear older, and the woman's hair is braided down her back, rather than coiled on her head, so that she appears younger. The increased age difference changes the tenor of the scene, perhaps raising doubts about the couple's future. Rogers' poignant subject may strike modern viewers as overly sentimental. Indeed, his depiction of a young maiden nearly swooning on the arm of her soon-to-be-departed lover contrasts with many of the artist's other portrayals of strong, capable women inspired by Rogers' wife, Hattie. Unlike the case with some of his other groups, here Rogers offers very little description of the action taking place, but the poignant theme of separated lovers allowed viewers to spin their own romantic stories. In fact, one writer identified only as M. N. wrote, "We can sit and conjure up romances by the dozen while gazing upon those earnest faces. . . . Will he keep his promise? . . . And will she prove a constant, devoted girl?" The author went on to rhapsodize on the tragic outcome if either of them was lured away by another. Rogers had used this device to good effect in some of his Civil War sculptures, such as The Town Pump (1941.917), Mail Day (1932.97), and Country Postoffice: News from the Army (1929.105, 1936.644), which are sufficiently generalized to allow viewers to identify their individual experiences with the subject and enter into a shared communion. For some, Parting Promise might have functioned as a reminder of such agonized partings during the war of the previous decade, but for M. N. and probably many others, it functioned as a fetish on which the viewer could project his or her romantic fantasies. The sculpture illustrates not only a scene of leave-taking but also the difficulties Rogers faced when trying to balance his dual goals of creating a democratic art that would appeal to a broad audience and maintaining the reputation he had built in the 1860s as an esteemed fine artist. The same year that he produced Parting Promise he exhibited a bust portrait of John E. Williams (Historic New England and Old Dartmouth Historical Society, New Bedford, Mass.) at the National Academy of Design, the reigning arbiter of nineteenth-century artistic taste. Submitting a work in the traditional genre of portraiture was meant to buttress his reputation in the confines of the artistic community. Also that same year Rogers began to offer free delivery of his sculptures to any express station in the United States, increasing their popularity beyond the East Coast. In keeping with his broader reach, Parting Promise attempted to engage the much larger American public.

Rogers is best known for his sculptures depicting scenes from the Civil War. The Picket Guard was his first such work, and its success launched his career. The artist modeled the subject in June 1861, just two months after the war broke out. Rogers' Unionist zeal leaps from the page of a letter he wrote to his mother shortly after Fort Sumter was surrendered in April 1861: "I feel very warlike and want to thrash the traitors." Rogers chose a subject that expresses the feelings of tension and romance that greeted the war in its early months, when it was thought the conflict would be glorious but brief. He depicted two privates and an officer on picket guard, a contingent of soldiers sent far in advance of the main encampment. Since they were most likely to encounter enemy movements first, they were at great risk of being captured, wounded, or killed, making picket duty the most hazardous an infantryman could undertake. In these dangerous circumstances, Rogers' three soldiers combine the intelligence, discipline, and fighting spirit that made up the ideal soldier. The officer at the center wears an alert expression and holds back the impulsive private to his right, who sees the enemy in the distance; his ferocious expression shows his eagerness to fight. The other private shades his eyes and attempts to get a better look. Rogers added a note of the humor that would characterize his later work by including a stolen chicken trying to escape the bag that hangs below the second private's elbow. The three are in the uniforms of Zouaves, companies modeled after the North African troops who served in the French army in the 1830s. Their uniforms, with their baggy pants, elaborately decorated jackets, and fezzes were widely recognized in the early years of the war. It has been suggested that Rogers' subject was inspired by the death of Elmer Ellsworth, the founder of the much-admired U.S. Zouave Cadets of Chicago. He was killed on May 24 while on a scouting mission in Alexandria, Virginia, and was hailed as the first martyr of the war. Where many of Rogers' later Civil War subjects would deal with humbler themes of everyday camp life, here he presented Union soldiers as heroes. The Picket Guard was widely praised not only for its subject but also for the artist's skill in rendering it. The New York Post enthused of Rogers' Civil War sculptures, and this one in particular: "they have merit besides being memorials of the great war. They show genuine genius in the artist." Periwinkle, the pseudonymous correspondent for the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, marveled at Rogers' masterful rendering: the figures hold an "attitude so tense and expression so intense, you involuntarily hold your breath, and listen with them." Though The Picket Guard is less well known today than Rogers' earlier effort The Slave Auction, it was his first great critical and commercial triumph. He placed casts at the fancy goods stores Williams & Everett in Boston and Williams & Stevens in New York. He was pleasantly surprised by brisk sales, and the managers asked what other works he had available. This success prompted the artist to revisit previous works and recast earlier subjects, while developing many more Civil War themes.

Union Refugees marked a turning point in Rogers' career. Since his 1859 return from study in Europe, he had debated which material to use for his sculptures: plaster, which was less expensive but disdained by the art establishment; or bronze, which, though considered a more elevated medium, was far more expensive both to produce and to sell. After lamenting the cost for several months, Rogers joyfully received an 1863 New Year's gift of $500 from his Uncle Henry Bromfield Rogers that allowed him to make Union Refugees his first bronze cast. Rogers chose spelter, a type of patinated zinc that was cheaper than bronze and therefore could be priced more affordably. The first casts were available for sale by late July, and he offered the sculptures for $60. It is not clear how many orders he received, but since the metal casts are now extremely rare, they probably did not sell well. By August he had decided to return to plaster, writing to his mother, "it is a weight off my mind & in spite of all the trouble I have had with plaster, I feel as I should on coming home from a long tiresome journey." Union Refugees proved extremely popular as a plaster, priced at $15. However, Rogers did not give up bronzes entirely. He complained that reproducing copies from the original (master) plaster wore the original down over time, and he had to create new master plasters frequently. Casting a master in bronze gave Rogers a model that would not only not wear down but would retain its crisp detail. It also allowed Rogers to make his groups much larger: Union Refugees measures twenty-two inches tall, versus the nine-to-fourteen-inch height of his earlier sculptures. The bronze master model permitted Rogers to work in a larger scale with enhanced detail and quality, and his sales increased as a consequence. Rogers chose a particularly evocative subject for this pivotal work, his first to show the war's traumatic effect on civilians. Union Refugees depicts a Southern Unionist family fleeing to the North. The father stands with a resolute expression with a small bundle of belongings hanging from his gun that suggests all the family has left behind. His wife leans against him mournfully, and their son attempts to comfort her with a small bouquet of wildflowers. Rogers told the sad tale by drawing the eye in an arc from the man's gun, with its implied force, carefully balanced on his shoulder, to his stern face, to his wife's distress, to the puzzled and anxious boy who has not yet realized that he has lost his home. The artist began work in the months just after the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, and this Unionist family's rejection of Southern proslavery views would have had a particularly keen resonance with his Northern viewers. Union Refugees was a critical as well as a commercial success. Rogers displayed the sculpture at the National Academy of Design in 1863 to uniform acclaim. Praise resounded for the patriotic theme and for Rogers' technical skill in depicting it. The New York Commercial Advertiser proclaimed that the sculpture would "deservedly attract attention not just for its subject, but also for its high merit as a work of art." The Springfield Republican called it a masterpiece. Rogers' sculpture was often mentioned in connection with John Quincy Adams Ward's The Freedman (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), a similarly sized bronze of a freed slave displayed at the same National Academy annual exhibition. The classicized pose and heroic proportions of the black man contemplating his liberty would have made a striking pendant to the white family forced to leave their home for their Unionist views. Rogers heroized the loyalty and sacrifices required of Union civilians, not just soldiers, and perhaps reminded his viewers that sacrifices might be required of them as well.

Eliza Skeel was the daughter of Theron and Elizabeth Skeel of Brooklyn. Laura Skeel, the artist, was her sister. Eliza Skeel married Isaac Otis at the Church of the Pilgrims, in Brooklyn, on June 6, 1848.