Daniel Chester French

Sculptures

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 (1920) at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Life and career

French was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, to Henry Flagg French (1813-1885), a lawyer, Assistant US Treasury Secretary and author of a book that described the French drain.[1] Daniel Chester French 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.
Chesterwood in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, French's summer home and studio is now a museum

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.

In 1917, he designed the Pulitzer Prize gold medal presented to laureates.[2] 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 Architectural League, and the Accademia di San Luca, of Rome. French was one of many sculptors who frequently employed Audrey Munson as a model. Together with Walter Leighton Clark and others, he was also one of the founders of the Berkshire Playhouse[3], which later became the Berkshire Theatre Festival.

French died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 1931 at age 81 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts.

Legacy

Chesterwood, French's summer home and studio – designed by his architect friend and frequent collaborator Henry Bacon – is now a museum.
In 1940, French was selected as one of five artists to be honored in the 35-stamp "Famous Americans" series.[4]

Works

Notable public monuments

Minute Man at the 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)
Statue of the 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.[5]
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 (1903), on the campus of Columbia University in New York City
Casting Bread Upon the Waters - George Robert White Memorial, Public Garden in Boston, Massachusetts
Samuel Spencer, first president of Southern Railway, located in front of Goode Building (Norfolk Southern offices) on Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, (1909).
August Meyer Memorial, 10th and The 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
Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial (1914-22)
Samuel Francis du Pont Memorial Fountain, Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. (1921)
Russell Alger Memorial Fountain, Grand Circus Park, Detroit, Michigan (1921).
Gale Park War Memorial & Park, Exeter, New Hampshire (1922)
Bust of Washington Irving and reliefs of Boabdil and Rip Van Winkle for the Washington Irving Memorial, Irvington, New York, (1927)
Beneficence, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. (1930)
William Henry Seward Memorial in Florida, New York (1930) [6]
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 and Alice Cogswell, Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C., (1889)
James Woods, “Uncle Jimmy” Green, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. (1924)
Gen. William Franklin Draper, Draper Memorial Park, Milford, Massachusetts. (1912)
Minuteman, Henry Bacon designer, Jno. Williams, Inc. (NY) founder, Danville, Illinois. (1915)

Architectural sculpture
Justice adorns the pediment of the Appellate Division Courthouse of New York State in Manhattan

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 Division Courthouse of New York State, 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 Courthouse, 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 (1920), Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., Henry Bacon architect (1914-22)
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 Manhattan, New York City in 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.

Marshall Field Memorial (1906), Chicago

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 (1906)
Slocum Memorial, Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Melvin Memorial, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts, (1906-08)

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 thus producing the mythical Nephilim, Corcoran Gallery of Art; Washington, D.C., signed and dated 1923.

Miscellaneous pieces

Chester French's Minute Man depicted on US Postage Satamp, 1940 Issue, 5c
~ Daniel Chester French ~
Issue of 1940

The Chicago Incendiary,
Minute Man depicted on US Postage Stamp, commemorating Battles of Lexington and Concord

References

Notes

1. ^ French, Henry F. (1859). Farm drainage: the principles, processes, and effects of draining land with stones, wood, plows, and open ditches, and especially with tiles. New York: Orange Judd & Company.
2. ^ Homren, Wayne (11 April 2004). "Pulitzer Secrets Revealed". The E-Sylum 7 (15, art. 5). http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v07n15a05.html. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
3. ^ http://www.berkshireweb.com/culture/index.html
4. ^ http://www.1847usa.com/identify/YearSets/FamousAmericans.htm
5. ^ Chicago Landmarks | Statue of The Republic at www.ci.chi.il.us
6. ^ Ramsey Al-Rikabi (2007-06-12). "Seward's bust gets busted". Times Herald-Record. http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070612/NEWS/706120313/-1/COMM0203. Retrieved 2007-06-30.