We offer our rendition of this heartfelt sculpture by John Rogers, entitled "The foundling".

"The Foundling" was yet another social statement on the plights of an underpriveleged group which society had neglected. John Rogers's the "Charity Patient" was well received but "The Foundling" was a sad reminder of what the public choose to close its eyes to and would rather not see. In Rogers's catalog he describes this group as: "A poor woman has left her baby in a basket filled with straw, at the doorstep of an old gentleman, who comes out with his lamp and takes it kindly up, while she listens behaind the fence, to hear how it will be received. She has one of the baby's shoes in her hand as a keepsake."
Considered by some, the Norman Rockwell of his time, he captured snap shots of life with incredible detail. Many of his subjects included the Civil War, literary topics, theatre scenes, domestic life and historical figures preserved in sculptures he named groups made of plaster. He often used neighbors and family members to model for his sculptures. His acumen for marketing his art, which he may have thought was simply common sense, was in fact ahead of time and often practiced today. You will find many of his groups at the Rogers Studio Museum located on the New Canaan Historical Society campus.