Sam Houston Statue by Elisabet Ney

Elisabet Ney was a German sculptor with a Texas-sized talent. Born in Münster, Westphalia, Ney immigrated to Texas with her family in 1873. She built her limestone studio, named Formosa, in Austin's Hyde Park neighborhood in 1892. The studio and the grounds are now part of the Elisabet Ney Museum.

This statue of Sam Houston was commissioned in 1892 for the Texas State Building at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. She borrowed family photographs of Houston to help capture his personality and character. Here Houston is portrayed as a man in his 40s during the Texas Revolution. Ney made this full-scale plaster cast from the original clay model. Her final marble sculpture stands in the Texas Capitol.