Daniel Chester French
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Daniel Chester French (April 20, 1850 – October 7, 1931) was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
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[edit] Biography
French was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, to Henry Flagg French, a lawyer and Assistant US Treasury Secretary. He was a neighbor and friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the Alcott family. His decision to pursue sculpting was influenced by Louisa May Alcott's sister May Alcott.
After a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, French worked on his father's farm. While visiting relatives in Brooklyn, New York City, he spent a month in the studio of John Quincy Adams Ward, then began to work on commissions, and at the age of twenty-three received from the town of Concord, Massachusetts, an order for his well-known statue The Minute Man, which was unveiled April 19, 1875 on the centenary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
Previously French had gone to Florence, Italy, where he spent a year working with sculptor Thomas Ball.
He is also known for his design in 1917 of the Pulitzer Prize gold medal that is presented to laureates.[1]
In collaboration with Edward Clark Potter he modelled the George Washington statue, presented to France by the Daughters of the American Revolution; the General Grant in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and the General Joseph Hooker statue in Boston.
In 1893, French was a founding member of the National Sculpture Society, and he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. French also became a member of the National Academy of Design (1901), the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Sculpture Society, the Architectural League, and the Accademia di San Luca, of Rome. French was one of many sculptors who frequently employed Audrey Munson as a model.
In 1940, French was selected as one of five artists to be honored in a series of postage stamps dedicated to great Americans.
French is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts following his death in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 1931 at age 81.
Chesterwood, French's summer home, studio, (designed by his architect friend and frequent collaborator Henry Bacon) and garden is now a museum.
[edit] Work
[edit] Notable public monuments
- Concord Minute Man, Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, (1874)
- The John Harvard Monument, Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, (1884)
- Lewis Cass, National Statuary Hall, Washington D.C., (1889)
- Thomas Starr King monument San Francisco, California, (1891)
- Republic, the colossal centerpiece of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. His 24-foot gilt-bronze reduced version made in 1918 survives in Chicago [1].
- John Boyle O'Reilly Memorial, intersection of Boylston Street and Westland Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, (1897)
- Rufus Choate memorial, Old Suffolk County Court House, Boston, Massachusetts, (1898)
- Richard Morris Hunt Memorial, on the perimeter wall of Central Park, at 5th Avenue at 70th Street, opposite the Frick Collection, in New York City, (1900)
- Alma Mater, campus of Columbia University in New York City (1903)
- Casting Bread Upon the Waters - George Robert White Memorial, Public Garden in Boston, Massachusetts
- Samuel Spencer, 1st president of Southern Railway, located at Hardy Ivy Park in Atlanta, Georgia, (1909).
- August Meyer Memorial, 10th and Paseo, Kansas City, Missouri; 1909
- Standing Lincoln at the Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln, Nebraska, (1912)
- Brooklyn and Manhattan, seated figures from the Manhattan Bridge; Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York, (1915)
- "The Spirit of Life", memorial to Spencer Trask, in Saratoga, New York at Congress Park, 1915
- Samuel Francis du Pont Memorial Fountain, Wilmington, Delaware (1921).
- Russell Alger Memorial Fountain, Grand Circus Park, Detroit, Michigan (1921).
- Gale Park War Memorial & Park, Exeter, New Hampshire (1922)
- Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial (1922)
- Beneficence, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. (1930)
- William Henry Seward Memorial in Florida, New York (1930) [2]
- Death and the Wounded Soldier aka Death and Youth, The Chapel of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire
- Lady Wisconsin atop the Wisconsin State Capitol building.
- Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. he also sculpted the Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet statue at Gallaudet University.
[edit] Architectural sculpture
- America at War and Peace, US Customs House & Post Office, St. Louis, Missouri, Alfred B. Mullett architect (1876-1882)
- Pediment, New Hampshire Historic Society Building, Concord, New Hampshire, Guy Lowell, architect (1909-1911)
- Bronze doors, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts, McKim, Mead & White architects, (1884-1904)
- Justice, Appellate Court House, NYC, James Brown Lord architect (1900)
- Four Continents, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House , NYC, Cass Gilbert architect, (1904)
- Progress of the State, quadriga, Six statues on entablature, Minnesota State Capitol, St. Paul, Minnesota, Cass Gilbert architect (1907)
- Jurisprudence and Commerce, Federal Building, Cleveland, Ohio, Arnold Brunner architect (1910)
- John Hampden, and Edward I, two attic figures, Cuyahoga County Building, Cleveland, Ohio, Lehman & Schmidt architects (1908, 1911)
- Attic Figures, Pediment, Brooklyn Museum, NYC, McKim, Mead & White architects (1912)
- Wisconsin, figure surmounting the dome, Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin, George B. Post architect (1914)
- Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., Henry Bacon architect (1923)
- Alfred Tredway White Memorial, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Henry Bacon architect (1921)
- Peace Sculpture for the Admiral Thomas E. Dewey Triumphal Arch and Colonnade that was built in Madison Square in New York City in 1900. Destroyed when popularity for Admiral Dewey waned.
- Justice, Power and Study. New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division (First Department); 27 Madison Avenue at East 24th Street; 1900.
- DeWitt Clinton; Alexander Hamilton; and John Jay. Three statues prepared in 1902 for the New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry Building at 65 Liberty Street. The building was declared a landmark on 1977.
- Greek Epic; Lyric Poetry, and Religion. Sculptures for the 1908 Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences building on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, New York.
- Power and Wisdom. Sculpture for the 1919 First World War Memorial. Since destroyed.
[edit] Cemetery monuments
- Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor, a memorial for the tomb of the sculptor Martin Milmore, in the Forest Hills cemetery, Boston; this received a medal of honor at Paris, in 1900. (1893)
- Clark Memorial, Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, (1894)
- Chapman Memorial, Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, (1897)
- Angel of Peace - George Robert White, Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, (1898)
- The Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial, Council Bluffs, Iowa. Often referred to as the "Black Angel". (1918)
- Memory, the Marshall Field Memorial, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, Henry Bacon, architect
- Slocum Memorial, Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
- Melvin Memorial, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts, (1906-08)
[edit] Selected museum pieces
- The Angel of Death and the Sculptor, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
- Memory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, marble carved by the Piccirilli Brothers, 1917-19, from a bronze of 1886-87, revised in 1909.
- Mourning Victory, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
- And the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men That They Were Fair…, For French, an unusually erotic sculpture depicting the verse from Genesis whereby a fallen angel seduces a mortal woman Nephilim, Corcoran Gallery of Art; Washington, D.C., signed and dated 1923.
[edit] References
- ^ Homren, Wayne (11 Apr 2004). "Pulitzer Secrets Revealed". The E-Sylum Vol. 7 (no. 15, art. 5). Retrieved on 2007-07-01.
- ^ Ramsey Al-Rikabi (12 Jun 2007). Seward's bust gets busted. Times Herald-Record. Retrieved on 2007-06-30.
[edit] Further reading
- Buck, Diane M. and Virginia A. Palmer, Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: A Cultural and Historical Guidebook, The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1995
- Caffin, Charles H., American Masters of Sculpture, Doubleday, Page & Company, New York 1913
- Caffin, in International Studio, volumes xx (1903), lx (1910), and lxvi (1912)
- Carlock, Marty, A Guide to Public Art in Greater Boston from Newburyport to Plymouth, The Harvard Common Press, Boston Massachusetts, 1988
- Chesterwood Archives, Geographical List of Works: DRAFT, unpublished manuscript, April 14, 1993
- Coughlan, in Magazine of Art (1901)
- Craven, Wayne, Sculpture in America, Thomas Y. Crowell Co, NY, NY 1968
- Cresson, Margaret French, Journey in Fame: The Life of Daniel Chaster French, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1947
- Hucke, Matt and Ursela Bielski, Graveyards of Chicago: the People, History, Art and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries, Lake Claremont Press, Chicago, 1999
- Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture in America
- Lanctot, Barbara, A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery, Chicago Architectural Foundation, Chicago, Illinois, 1988
- Richman, Michael, Daniel Chester French: An American Sculptor, The Preservation Press, Washington D.C., 1976
- Taft, Lorado, The History of American Sculpture, MacMillan Co., New York, NY 1925
- Wilson, Susan, Garden of Memorias: A Guide to Historic Forest Hills, Forest Hills Educational Trust
[edit] External links
- Daniel Chester French: Sculpture In Situ
- Chesterwood Estate and Museum • Summer home, studio, and garden of sculptor Daniel Chester French
- Daniel Chester French
- Works by or about Daniel Chester French in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
