The Ship’s Last Sigh

The Ship’s Last Sigh is one of the most renowned allegorical sea-themed works by Amandus Adamson, and there are several versions of it.  

The sculptor modelled the first version in wax in 1899, and this version has not come down to us. We can presume that this plaster cast was made after the original wax model because its signature is also dated 1899.

At the turn of the century, Adamson made a model of the sculpture for the St. Petersburg Porcelain Factory to be used for reproductions in biscuit porcelain. There is a biscuit sculpture in the Tartu Art Museum and another one in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

In 1922, Adamson repeated the same composition in plaster. The signature engraved on the plaster cast and the inscription confirm that the sculpture was made in Carrara, Italy. The plaster sculpture also served as the model for the marble version hewn around the same time in Carrara. The dotted markings on the backside of the sculpture prove that this particular plaster cast was the model for the marble sculpture.  

There are two marble versions of The Ship’s Last Sigh in the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia, made by Adamson respectively in 1922–1923 and in 1926. The latter has survived intact, but the former was damaged in a fire during the air raid of March 1944.

A list of works compiled by Adamson in 1907 mentions a version of The Ship’s Last Sigh carved out of pear wood by commission of a Mr. Geise.

The sculpture depicts a young maiden, exhausted from fighting against a stormy sea, leaning against a broken mast. Adamson is said to have been inspired by a storm he witnessed on the coast of Paldiski and a shipwreck ravaged by wind.