THE MENTOR, No. 36,
Famous American Sculptors

The Mentor

“A Wise and Faithful Guide and Friend”

FAMOUS AMERICAN SCULPTORS

By LORADO TAFT

Sculptor, and Author of “History of American Sculpture”

The story of American sculpture is a brief one compared with the
chronicles of other lands. Our first professional sculptors, Horatio
Greenough and Hiram Powers, were both born in 1805. In European
countries the records of the last hundred years are but fragments, brief
sequels to the story of ages of endeavor. It is difficult to realize that our
actual achievement, from the very kindergarten stage of an unknown art
to the proud eminence held by American sculpture in the Paris Exposition
of 1900, was the work of but three score years and ten—was seen in
its entirety by many living men.

BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN SCULPTURE

BIRTHPLACE OF J. Q. A. WARD

Ward was born in 1830, on a farm in the neighborhood
of Urbana, Ohio.

The beginnings of all arts in this country have been timid and
imitative. Literature, music, and painting had something to found themselves
upon in the national tradition; but sculpture was never abundant
in England, and this art, usually one of the earliest, was the last to appear
in America. Its first inspirations were Italian, and for half a century
American sculpture was a crude parody on the art of Canova and Thorvaldsen.
Many of our sculptors, like Powers, Greenough, Crawford,
Story, Randolph Rogers, Rinehart, Ball, Mead, and Harriet Hosmer,
made their homes in Florence and Rome, and welcomed the ever swelling
tide of American travel with wistful greetings. Perhaps their influence
was greater there upon the receptive travelers than it could have been at
home; but one cannot help feeling a high regard for men like Palmer,
John Rogers, and Ward, who “held the fort,” developing the native material
of their own land.

About the time of the Centennial, France was suddenly discovered
by our young sculptors. Her opportunities were appreciated, and soon
the entire stream of students was diverted thither from Italy and Germany.
Saint Gaudens was the first important product of the American-French
school of sculpture, and his talent and training together offered
an irresistible argument for the new methods.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS WARD

PAUL WAYLAND BARTLETT AND JOHN QUINCY
ADAMS WARD

WASHINGTON, BY WARD

On Wall Street, New York City.
The pedestal bears the inscription:
“On this site, in Federal Hall,
April 30, 1789, George Washington
took the oath as the first President
of the United States of America.”

Before speaking further of our greatest sculptor, a few words
should be devoted to the last and most distinguished of the pioneers,
John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910),
who was privileged to see the
triumphs of American sculpture at
home and abroad, and to participate
in them to the end. Always keenly
alive and vibrantly responsive to
the forces at work about him, he
was ever a contemporary of the
youngest men of his profession.
Ward’s earliest success, “The
Indian Hunter” in Central Park,
New York City, was the result
of a long journey among the red
men. Its intensity is an unconscious
revelation of the man
who made it: no lackadaisical
dreamer could have conceived
the idea, much less have carried it to its happy
realization. The emotion of war times found
expression in “The Freedman,” and later in a
notable series of memorials to heroes of the conflict,
culminating in the great “Henry Ward
Beecher” of Brooklyn, one of the most impressive
portraits in this country. None but a
big man could have grasped that character;
none but a strong nature could convey to others
that impression of exuberant vitality and of conscious
power. The great preacher stands solidly
upon his feet, enveloped in a heavy overcoat and
cape, his hat in hand.
The poise is superbly
confident; the leonine
head uplifted as if
in command rather
than in exhortation.

THE WARRIOR, BY WARD

One of the three figures that adorn the base of the Garfield statue at Washington.
The other two are the “Statesman” and the “Student.”

New York City has many of Ward’s works. His “Pilgrim” and
“Shakespeare” in Central Park are well known. His “Horace Greeley”
is the last word in faithful characterization, as vivid as his Wall Street
“Washington” is noble and detached. The admirable equestrian “General
Thomas” and the “Garfield” monument in Washington are equally
familiar. The uprightness and dignity of the whole life of the sculptor
left their impress upon every portrait he modeled. Some are greater
than others; but they are men, everyone of them. They stand firmly
on their feet, and they make no gestures, no attempt to win us. There
is no restlessness, no anxiety; you feel
eternity in their attitudes, in their composure.
Above all, the sculptor has
known how to endow each with an
individual intelligence.

SAINT GAUDENS,
THE MASTER

GRIEF, BY SAINT GAUDENS

This mysterious figure is sometimes called “Death,” or
“The Peace of God.” It is in Rock Creek Cemetery,
Washington, and is a memorial to Mrs. Adams.

Augustus Saint Gaudens, like so
many of our best citizens, was a product
of another land; of two others, in
fact. Born in Dublin in 1848 of a
French father and an Irish mother, he
represented an unusually fortunate
combination of two artistic races. The
humble family settled in 1850 in New
York, where the boy was early
apprenticed to a cameo cutter,
supplementing his childish efforts
with a rigorous training in the
drawing classes of Cooper Union.
In 1880, after some years abroad,
he exhibited at the Salon his
remarkable figure of Admiral Farragut,
now in Madison Square,
New York, which still remains one
of his finest works. This statue—and
its harmonious pedestal—met
with instant success, and was followed
by a series of triumphant
works, so novel and original, so
significant and admirably perfected, that the master’s position at the
head of the profession in this country was constantly reaffirmed to the
day of his death.

DEACON CHAPIN, BY SAINT GAUDENS

At Springfield, Massachusetts.

Indeed, in reviewing the life of this great artist, one asks what other
sculptor of modern times has produced such a succession of notable
achievements as the “Farragut”; the “Lincoln” of Chicago; the “Deacon
Chapin” of Springfield, Massachusetts; the “Adams Memorial”
in Washington; the
“Shaw Memorial”;
the “Logan”; the
“Sherman”, and
finally the seated
“Lincoln.” Add to
this the countless
exquisite medallions,
the delightfully
decorative
high relief portraits,
and, perhaps most
beautiful of all, that
angelic brood of
which the “Amor
Caritas” is the type
and culmination,
and where shall we
look for a more individual
expression? Rodin himself, with all his contortions, has not produced so much
beauty nor demonstrated himself more “original.”

Copyright, 1905, by De W. C. Ward.

AUGUSTUS SAINT GAUDENS IN HIS STUDIO

From a painting by Kenyon Cox.

To different moods these great works make their differing appeals.
The heroic “Lincoln,” with its strong, gaunt frame and its majestic head
bowed in sympathetic tenderness; the sturdy “Chapin,” wrapped in a
voluminous cloak and self sufficiency; the mysterious, inscrutable genius
of the Adams tomb; the rhythmic momentum of the colored regiment
with its fated leader riding serenely, square shouldered, and level eyed
to his doom; the glorious “Victory” of the Sherman group, the most
spiritual, most ethereal of all sculptured types,—what an array are these!
What wealth to have brought to our national ideals!

DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH

BIRTHPLACE OF G. G. BARNARD

Barnard was born at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, where
his parents were temporarily residing in 1863. The
sculptor is really a Westerner.

Worthy successor to the great artist who put us all under such heavy
obligations is Daniel Chester French, whose work is known throughout
the land. French was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1850, and
grew up in Concord, Massachusetts,
amid ideal surroundings. His first
youthful effort in sculpture, “The
Minute Man of Concord,” was a success,
and his busy life has known no
failures. No other American sculptor
has produced so much, and we can
name here but a few of his most
important works.

MINUTE MAN, BY FRENCH

At Concord, Massachusetts.

Reproduced from American Sculpture, by Lorado
Taft. Copyright, 1903, by The MacMillan Co.

ALMA MATER, BY FRENCH

Adorning the approach to the Library of
Columbia University, New York City.

DANIEL CHESTER
FRENCH

French is well known as a
sculptor in both America and
Europe.

Best beloved is the noble “Death
and the Young Sculptor,” designed as
a memorial to the sculptor, Martin
Milmore. In this poetic group we
have unquestionably one of the highest
expressions of a purely American
art. Other works of interest are the ascetic
“John Harvard” of Cambridge; a vigorous
“General Cass” and the touchingly sympathetic
“Gallaudet” group, both in Washington, D. C.;
the “O’Reilly” monument of Boston; the
equestrian “Washington” in Paris and Chicago;
“General Grant” in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia;
and “General Hooker” in Boston. Among his most
recent works are a “Lincoln” for Lincoln, Nebraska,
and an “Emerson” for Concord.

The Columbian Exposition was crowned by
French’s gigantic and truly monumental “Republic,”
a superb figure which reappears, comfortably
seated for all time, in the “Alma Mater” of Columbia.
French does not disdain architectural sculpture,
and has made beautiful groups for the Custom
House of New York, the postoffice of Cleveland,
and the pediment of the Brooklyn Institute. In
the recent Parkman and Melvin memorials he has
shown a treatment peculiarly adapted to the stone,
a most valuable suggestion to our younger men.
No one has greater influence upon the trend of
American
sculpture
than has
French, and many there are
who owe to him their successful
beginnings.

FREDERICK MacMONNIES

FREDERICK WILLIAM
MacMONNIES

HORSE TAMERS, BY MacMONNIES

Two groups, one of which is shown, that adorn an entrance to
Prospect Park, Brooklyn. They formed part of the sculptor’s
remarkable exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1900.

When in 1884 Frederick
MacMonnies arrived in Paris he
was equipped as no American
had ever been before. He was
twenty-one years old, and had
already spent five years in the
studio of Saint Gaudens, besides
learning to draw like a skilled
painter. His progress was proportionate,
and it has been his
joy ever since to meet his European
competitors upon their
own field and to rival them in
whatever they undertake. If
there is nothing distinctively
American in his art, it is sculpture
of the highest degree of
workmanship, an international
coin that passes current wherever
good art is known.

BIRTHPLACE OF D. C. FRENCH

French was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, on
April 20, 1850

THE HEWER, BY BARNARD

The plate on the pedestal says, “Erected in memory of William
Parker Halliday, and presented to the city of Cairo, Ill., A.
D. 1906, in token of his unswerving faith in her destiny.”

No one has ever worked
quite so feverishly as did MacMonnies
during those wonderful
first years of his career, and no
one has ever done so much in
the time. The list is too long
even to chronicle here, much less
to comment upon. Beginning
with the “Nathan Hale” and
“Stranahan” of the Salon of
1891, the sculptor came insistently
into national view in 1893
with his great Columbian fountain,
the jewel of the Chicago
Exposition. It was the opportunity
of a lifetime, and the
young sculptor rose serenely and
triumphantly to the occasion.
The memory of that exquisite
twilight vision remains a delight
to all who saw it. Orders followed
in rapid sequence, and
brought more successes,—the
archaistic “Shakespeare” of the
Congressional Library; the
irresistible “Bacchante”; “Sir
Henry Vane” of Boston; and the
sculptor’s various contributions to
Prospect Park, Brooklyn,—the Memorial
Arch, with its gigantic army and
navy groups, and its glorious Quadriga
above, and the “Horse Tamers.”

Upon the exhibition of these
works at the Paris Exposition of 1900
MacMonnies decided that he wanted
a rest, which in the case of one of his nervous
temperament meant merely a change. He
dropped his modeling tools absolutely, and
for a number of years gave himself up to the
joys of painting. All sculptors dream of this;
but he could really do it. His work on canvas
is no less masterly than his sculpture. Of late
he has returned to his first love, and we look forward
eagerly to the new products of his studio.

THE BOLD ORIGINALITY
OF BARNARD

GEORGE GREY BARNARD

George Grey Barnard is a Westerner,
although he chanced to be born in Pennsylvania,
where his parents
were temporarily
residing
in 1863. The sculptor’s father is a clergyman,
and the fortunes of the ministry afterward
led him to Chicago, and thence to
Muscatine, Iowa, where the son passed his
boyhood. One cannot doubt that these
circumstances had their profound influence
upon the character of the young artist. In
it is something of the largeness of the
western prairies, something of the audacity
of a life without tradition or precedent,
a burning intensity of enthusiasm;
above all, a strong element of mysticism
which permeates all that Barnard does
or thinks.

Reproduced from American Sculpture, by Lorado
Taft. Copyright, 1903, by The MacMillan Co.

MICHELANGELO, BY BARTLETT

A vivid representation of the mighty Florentine,
is one of the bronze effigies that decorate
the rotunda of the Congressional Library.

The stories of his student struggles in
Chicago and Paris are familiar. The first
result of all this self sacrifice became tangible
in that early group, a tombstone for
Norway, in which the youth portrayed
“Brotherly Love,” a work of “weird and
indescribable charm.”

In 1894 Barnard completed his celebrated
group, “Two Natures,” upon which
he had toiled, in clay and marble, for several
years. This masterful achievement
gave him at once high standing in Europe,
and his work has never since ceased to interest the cultivated public
of the world’s capitals. Then followed an extraordinary “Norwegian
Stove,” a monumental affair illustrative of Scandinavian mythology;
and “Maidenhood” and the “Hewer,” two of the finest nudes thus far
produced in America.

The great work of Barnard’s recent years has been the decoration
of the Pennsylvania capitol. It has been said of him that he was “the
only one connected with that building who was not smirched”; but
his part is a story of heroism and triumph. The writer has not yet seen
the enormous groups in place, but is familiar with fragments that
have won the enthusiastic praise of the best sculptors of Paris. They
are inspiring conceptions which point the way to still mightier
achievements in American sculpture.

THE VIGOR OF BARTLETT

LAFAYETTE, BY BARTLETT

In the square before the Louvre, Paris

Paul Wayland Bartlett was born
in 1865 of artistic ancestry, his father
being Truman Bartlett, teacher and
critic. The boy grew up in Paris,
entering the Beaux-Arts at the age
of fifteen, and working also at the
Jardin des Plantes under the helpful
guidance of Frémiet, the great
animalist. His art has always
offered an interesting blend of the
two influences, animal forms appearing
in nearly all his compositions.

Bartlett’s first important exhibit
was the “Bohemian Bear Trainer”;
the second, the Indian “Ghost Dancer,”
shown at the Chicago Exposition.
Soon followed those striking
works for the Congressional Library,
his “Columbus” and “Michelangelo.”
The former shows the discoverer
in a new light,—no longer
the gentle dreamer, the eloquent
pleader, the enthusiast, nor yet the
silent victim in chains, but a hero
of might and confidence, hurling
proud defiance at his calumniators.
The “Michelangelo” is, if possible,
an even more vivid though less
vehement presentation of its theme. The
short, gnomelike figure with stumpy legs;
the big, powerful hands; the stern face, rough
hewn, with its frown and tight lips,—all these
combine to make this at first sight a not
very winning presentation of the great
master; but it has the quality that will outlive
all others. It was left to an American
sculptor to grasp his character profoundly,
and to create an adequate representation of
the mighty Florentine.

Bartlett’s young “Lafayette” stands in
one of the most coveted sites in all Paris,
in the square before the Louvre. It is well
worthy of the honor, and is a monument to
the artist’s capacity for “taking pains,”
representing as it does many years of study
and experiment.

Bartlett collaborated with Ward upon
the pedimental group of the New York Stock
Exchange, and a logical result of the good
work done there was the commission to
design the long awaited pediment for the
House of Representatives in Washington, a
gigantic undertaking of great significance,
which is now in progress.

To select these six names out of a
hundred seems invidious. One wants to talk
of Herbert Adams and his beautiful busts,
of Karl Bitter and all the fine things he has
done, of MacNeil and Grafly and Aitken and the Piccirillis and the
Borglums and all the rest, of the Boston men, of the women sculptors,
even of the little western group; but space fails. They are all working
enthusiastically for the love of their art and for the fair fame of America.

BLACK HAWK, BY LORADO TAFT

A concrete work of gigantic proportions,
overlooking Rock River, Illinois.

Editorial

“Seek knowledge wherever it can be
found throughout the world.” So spoke
Mutsuhito, late Emperor of Japan. It
was a favorite maxim of his, and one frequently
repeated by his subjects. It
might well be a legend of The Mentor,
for the wise thought beneath that injunction
of the emperor’s is just what inspired
The Mentor plan.

The method pursued in The Mentor
finds, too, a striking parallel in Japanese
life. In seeking knowledge and in the
enjoyment of beautiful things, the Japanese
set their minds on “one thing at a
time.” Their habit of thought and their
method of study are such as might be expressed
in The Mentor principle, “Learn
one thing every day.”

The thoroughness of the Japanese is
well known. Their intelligence, enterprise,
and up-to-dateness have been illustrated
many times in the arts of peace
and in the science of war. In this one
particular principle of concentration in
study, and single mindedness in the enjoyment
of beautiful things, the Japanese
may well be taken as a model for the rest
of mankind.

My friend Takashima showed me
lately a beautiful vase. It stood on a
pedestal in a room that seemed to me
empty. Simple matting covered the
floor; simply decorated screens covered
the walls; a few pieces of furniture,
equally simple, were all that the room
contained—beside that vase. “Is it not
beautiful?” he said, and then he gave me
its history, telling me who, among the
early masters of Chinese pottery, had designed
and shaped this exquisite work of
art. I remarked on the reverence that he
showed for a single work of art in devoting
a room to it alone. “Enjoy one thing
of beauty at a time,” he said. “I could
not enjoy this vase in a room filled with
miscellaneous things. As well go to a
shop. The mind would be in chaos—knowing
nothing well and appreciating
nothing to the full.”

Such had always been Takashima’s
habit. He said it was a habit of his
people. “Why,” he asked, “should you
have more than one thing of beauty in
your room at a time? Enjoy it to the full.
Then place something else there, but, before
removing it, get out of it all that there
is in it of beauty and of knowledge. You
cannot do this in the confusion of a room
filled with many varied things.” The incident
was so strikingly in accord with
The Mentor idea that it seemed as if
Takashima might the next moment have
added the phrase, “Learn one thing
every day.”

And so the principle underlying the
plan of The Mentor Association is one
approved and exercised by a nation of
intelligent people. How many other
people follow this direct and simple path
to knowledge we cannot say, but that it
is not only the direct and simple way, but
the one satisfying and effective way
of acquiring knowledge, is plain. On that
principle The Mentor Association is
founded, and by following that principle,
the members of the Association can
add day by day to their store of knowledge,
and can fully and intelligently enjoy
the beautiful things in art.

COPYRIGHT 1903 THE MACMILLAN CO

HENRY WARD BEECHER—JOHN QUINCY ADAMS WARD

REPRODUCED FROM “AMERICAN SCULPTURE” BY LORADO TAFT

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS WARD

Monograph Number One in The Mentor Reading Course

The life of John Quincy Adams Ward was a long record of
dignified success. Born in the beginning of the last century,
at the time when American sculpture was in a very
elementary stage, he lived to see this art mature into something
of which our country may well be proud. Quiet simplicity
and impressiveness of mass characterize Ward’s work. Everything
he did was big and effective.

John Quincy Adams Ward was born on June 29, 1830, near Urbana,
Ohio. He was a boy that enjoyed play; but he did not neglect his work.
He loved the open air. Riding, hunting or fishing—he liked them all.
He received his education in the village schools.

One day the young boy found some clay on his father’s farm. He
took a handful of it and modeled the face of an old negro who lived
nearby. Everyone who saw this early attempt said that it was “wonderful.”
It may have been. At any rate, Ward did not immediately
begin to dream of becoming a great sculptor. In this he differed from
most beginners whose first work is called great by their friends.

Not until he was nineteen years old did he really find out his destiny.
In 1849 he paid a visit to a sister in Brooklyn. One day he
happened to pass the studio of the sculptor H. K. Browne. The door
of the studio was open, and Ward glanced inside. The scene fascinated
him. He returned to the place again and again. Finally he found his
way into this world of mystery, and at length by some miracle became
one of the sculptor’s pupils.

It would have been hard for Ward to have found a better master in
all America. He studied under Browne from 1850 to 1857. He learned
everything, from kneading clay to marble carving. By 1861, when he
opened a studio of his own in New York City, he had executed busts of
Joshua R. Giddings, Alexander H. Stephens, and Hannibal Hamlin, prepared
the first sketch for “The Indian Hunter,” his great work now in
Central Park, New York City, and made studies among the Indians
themselves for this work.

From that time on success was his. He worked hard and conscientiously.
His statues of Washington, Beecher, and Horace Greeley are all
recognized as great pieces of portrait sculpture. Unlike many of the
early sculptors of America, he acquired his training, his inspirations, and
his themes from his own country.

When the National Sculpture Society was organized in New York in
1896, Ward was elected to be the first president. He died in New York
City on May 1, 1910.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36
COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

THE SHAW MEMORIAL—AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS

AUGUSTUS SAINT GAUDENS

Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course

St. Gaudens is the name of a little town in the south of
France and close to the foot of the Pyrenees. A humble
shoemaker named Bernard Paul Ernest dwelt there, and in
1848, after he had moved to Dublin, Ireland, he had a son,
to whom he gave the name Augustus. The mother of the
boy was a native of Dublin; her maiden name was Mary McGuinness.
Such was the origin of a master in sculpture, Augustus Saint Gaudens.
His parents came to America when he was an infant, and after a short
stay in Boston took up their residence in New York City. Augustus
Saint Gaudens attended school until he was thirteen. Then he was apprenticed
to a cameo cutter named Avet. After three years’ service he
left his master and found employment with a shell cameo cutter named
Le Breton, with whom he worked for several years. During this time
young Saint Gaudens was studying drawing at night; first at Cooper
Union, and then for two years at the National Academy of Design.

Augustus Saint Gaudens was always a thoughtful, quiet youth, with
extraordinary power of concentration. He pursued the art of modeling
with great enthusiasm. It was said of him that his sense of form and of
objects in relief was so vivid that with his eyes closed he could fairly
“see with his fingers.” His cameo cutting naturally assisted him in the
perfection of art in high and low relief.

When twenty years old Saint Gaudens was already a well trained
artist. He went to Paris and worked in the School of Fine Arts in the
studio of M. Jouffroy. There he studied the human figure in all phases,
and quickly mastered it. A residence of several years in Italy followed,
with constant art activity and steady artistic growth. He came back to
the United States in 1874, and his first work was a bust in marble of
William M. Evarts. Then came a commission for a large decorative
relief for St. Thomas’ Church, New York City, and in 1878 he began
work on the statue of Admiral Farragut that now stands in Madison
Square, New York City, which is one of the most widely known and admired
of all his works.

The years that followed were full of distinguished achievements.
His “Lincoln,” which was unveiled in Lincoln Park, Chicago, in 1887,
has been hailed as the greatest portrait statue in the United States.

Saint Gaudens was not only the most skilful of American sculptors,
but also the most versatile. This will be appreciated by anyone who
looks first at the Farragut statue, then at the severe, imposing character
of Deacon Chapin, a statue that is often called “The Puritan.” Let
him then contrast the stirring Shaw Memorial, on Boston Common,
with the strange, mysteriously beautiful figure in Rock Creek Cemetery,
Washington, D. C., that has been called variously “Grief,” “Death,”
and “The Peace of God.”

Saint Gaudens enjoyed the distinction of being America’s leading
sculptor for many years before he died. His life was crowned with honors,
sweetened by many fine friendships, and enriched and mellowed by
broad, liberal, mature art intelligence. He was a great master of art in
thought and in expression. He died in New York City in 1907.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36
COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

DEATH AND THE YOUNG SCULPTOR. by Daniel Chester French

DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH

Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course

Nature smiled on Daniel Chester French. All the circumstances
of his birth and breeding conspired to help his development.
He was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, in
1850. Among many well known relatives he numbered
Daniel Webster and John Greenleaf Whittier. His ancestors
were men who stood high in the communities in which they lived. His
father was a lawyer, a judge, and assistant secretary of the United States
treasury. He was always interested in public welfare, and was known
for his good taste and good works. His descendants said that he “beautified
every place in which he lived.”

Daniel Chester French showed ability at an early age, but no particular
leaning toward sculpture. He was simply a bright, good-looking boy,
with a liking for outdoor life and exercise. One day, when about nineteen
years old, during a period of work on his father’s farm, he showed his
parents a queer figure of a frog that he had cut out of a turnip; “Daniel,
there is your career!” were the words that expressed the feelings of both
father and mother. The farm was near Concord. There dwelt Miss May
Alcott, the “Amy” of “Little Women,” and an artist of some ability.
She encouraged young French in his study of drawing and modeling, and
he plunged into his art career with an enthusiasm that bordered on boyish
frenzy. His nature was ardent and poetic, and it carried him into forms
of expression that were doomed to disappointment. The best thing for
him was a visit that he made to the veteran sculptor J. Q. A. Ward. This
took place when he was staying with relatives in Brooklyn, New York,
and it opened the boy’s eyes to the fuller meaning of sculpture. Months
of earnest work followed, during which Daniel French’s talents rapidly
ripened.

When he was only twenty-three years old he received a commission
of real national importance, that of modeling the statue of “The Minute
Man.” This interesting piece of sculpture, now well known, was unveiled
at Concord in 1875. In celebration of it Ralph Waldo Emerson and
George William Curtis made speeches, and James Russell Lowell read a
poem. At this time Daniel French had sailed for Italy, where he remained
for a period in study. In 1879 he modeled a bust of Emerson from life—a
work so vivid and lifelike that the poet-philosopher said, “The more it
resembles me, the worse it looks,” and then added, with a nod of approval,
“That is the face that I shave.”

French’s art took rapid strides. He is known today equally well by
his fine portrait busts and his great allegorical compositions. One of the
most imposing of his compositions is the great heroic female figure entitled
“Alma Mater,” seated at the approach to the library of Columbia
University, New York. No American sculptor is better known than Mr.
French in his home land or abroad. He bears high honors on both continents.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36
COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

COPYRIGHT 1903 THE MACMILLAN CO.

NATHAN HALE—FREDERICK MACMONNIES

REPRODUCED FROM “AMERICAN SCULPTURE” BY LORADO TAFT

FREDERICK MACMONNIES

Monograph Number Four in The Mentor Reading Course

To many Americans the name of Frederick MacMonnies became
known by the imposing Columbian Fountain at the
Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The composition was a majestic
barge, on which Columbia sat enthroned on high. At
the prow was a fine figure of Fame with trumpet upraised.
On the stern Father Time watched the progress of the barge, which was
urged on by the oars of eight women of great beauty representing the
Arts and Industries. The work had style, and it was also imposing in its
massed effect. MacMonnies was only twenty-seven years old when this
commission was given to him in 1891. He got it largely through the
influence of his instructor, Augustus Saint Gaudens. All the summer of
1893 people were asking about the young sculptor. They found that he
was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1863, of Scottish parentage. He
came by an art inheritance from one of his parents at least,—his mother,
Juliana Eudora West, a niece of the famous early American painter,
Benjamin West.

Frederick MacMonnies had to leave school when a mere boy and
earn his living as clerk in a jewelry store. He found time to study there,
and when he was sixteen years old he attracted the notice of Saint Gaudens,
who took him into his studio as an apprentice. That was the beginning
of MacMonnies’ fame. He could scarcely realize at that age
what a few years’ training under Saint Gaudens would mean. He worked
hard in the studio and in the classes of the Academy of Design and Art
Students’ League; so that when in 1884 he was able to go abroad he had
a ground knowledge of modeling that fitted him to make the most of his
study in foreign schools. He had been in the fullest sense “put in right”
by Saint Gaudens. Through all the years of his study he had the advantage
of close, familiar association with the greatest artists of this
country and some of those abroad. MacMonnies went at once to Paris
and joined the School of Fine Arts, where he made friends, and his progress
was rapid. Back and forth he went during the next few years, from
Paris to New York, according as his means and his plans of work required.

He got his first commission in 1889,—an order for three life-sized angel
figures in bronze for Saint Paul’s Church, New York City. This brought
him commendation, and, with the help of the great Saint Gaudens, other
commissions were placed in his hands, notably the Nathan Hale statue,
which stands in City Hall Park, New York City, and the portrait statue
of James S. T. Stranahan of Brooklyn. These works preceded the Columbian
Fountain, and since MacMonnies’ name has come to be known
they are counted among his most admired creations.

In 1894 the famous Bacchante appeared,—the dancing, laughing girl
that attracted so much public comment for a time.

Mr. MacMonnies is known by many figures and compositions in public
places, notably the groups in bronze of the Army and the Navy on
the Brooklyn Memorial Arch at the entrance to Prospect Park.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36
COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

THE TWO NATURES, by George Grey Barnard

GEORGE GREY BARNARD

Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course

Success is deserved by hard work, although it does not always
follow. But in the case of George Grey Barnard hard
work combined with genius made him one of the great sculptors
of America, and one of whom this country may well
be proud.

George Grey Barnard was born at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, on May
24, 1863. His father was a clergyman at Muscatine, Iowa, where the
sculptor passed his boyhood. He delighted in stuffing the skins of birds
and animals, and became quite an expert taxidermist. He also liked to
model animals; and a bust of his little sister convinced his family that he
should turn his talents to some trade in which he could make a good living.

So he became apprentice to an engraver. Later he moved to Chicago.
Here it was that the first desire to become a sculptor entered his mind.
For a long time he debated the question. If he remained at his trade,
he could rest assured of a good income all his life; while if he decided to
study sculpture, he would practically have to starve for a few years.

At last he entered the Art Institute of Chicago. He had been there
about a year and a half, when a bust of a little girl brought him three
hundred and fifty dollars. He decided to go to Paris on this small sum.
He set off in 1883, and began study in the Atelier Cavelier of the Beaux
Arts.

Barnard worked hard, and denied himself all the luxuries, and even
many of the necessities of life. His first year in Paris cost him just
eighty-nine dollars, so it can be imagined what self-denial the young
man must have practised for the sake of his art. Barnard took life
seriously; but he never complained.

His first noteworthy production was “The Boy,” which he finished in
marble in 1885. The following year he made a heroic-sized statue of
Cain, which he afterward destroyed. “Brotherly Love,” a tombstone
executed at the order of a Norwegian, he modeled in 1887. This was the
best thing he had done up to that time.

Other works followed in rapid succession,—“The Two Natures,” in
the Metropolitan Museum of New York City; “The Norwegian Stove,”
an allegorical fireplace; “The God Pan,” in Central Park, New York
City; “The Hewer,” at Cairo, Illinois; “The Rose Maiden,” and the
simple and graceful “Maidenhood.”

All of these were successful, and in 1902 Barnard received the reward
for all his hardships and struggles. He was selected to execute all the
sculptured decorations for the new capitol for the state of Pennsylvania
at Harrisburg. And the work he did there promises even greater from
this sculptor in the future.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36
COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

COPYRIGHT, 1902. DETROIT PHOTO CO.

PRIMITIVE MAN. by Paul Wayland Bartlett

PAUL WAYLAND BARTLETT

Monograph Number Six in The Mentor Reading Course

Everyone knows the saying, “Genius is the capacity for
taking infinite pains.” If this adage is true, then Paul
Wayland Bartlett is a great genius; for in everything this
sculptor does he pays the closest attention to details. He
attends personally to every part of his work. And this “capacity
for taking pains” accounts largely for his success.

Paul Wayland Bartlett was born amid scholarly surroundings at
New Haven, Connecticut, in 1865. He was the son of Truman H. Bartlett
of Boston, an art critic and sculptor. Many years ago Bartlett and
his mother went to live in Paris. Here the young man found his vocation.
When he was only fifteen years old he entered the École des
Beaux Arts. He quickly became an excellent modeler. He worked hard,
and in addition took up a course on animal sculpture. As he could thus
help other sculptors as an animal specialist, he was able to earn money
to carry on his studies.

Bartlett tells about the time when he and a friend, M. Gardet, used
to go around “doing animals” wherever they got the opportunity.
Among the modernized decorations of the Porte St. Denis is a lion,
“fierce and terrible,” which is the work of his hands. An “Orpheus” in
the Luxembourg has attached to it a three-headed dog that he modeled.
And he created on one occasion for the Exposition of Amsterdam an
elephant of gigantic proportions.

Bartlett lived during this time in a quaint little street off the Rue de
Vaugirard, where he had a little vine-covered studio. It was there that
he began “The Bear Tamer,” which is now in bronze in the Metropolitan
Museum of New York City. He spent a year upon it, and then became
dissatisfied with it and spent another year in changing the composition.

Many works followed this successful effort. First appeared the
“Ghost Dancer,” a vicious looking savage. Then came the equestrian
statue of Lafayette, presented to the French republic by the school
children of America; the powerful and virile Columbus, and the Michelangelo,
both of which are in the Congressional Library at Washington;
the lifelike “Dying Lion,” and many others.

Besides these works Bartlett has modeled beetles, fishes, reptiles,
and crustaceans. Here his skill with patinas (the coloring of bronzes) is
shown. A wealth of color is seen in his small figures of beetles and snakes.

Bartlett’s work is not finished. More and greater is still to come. No
man is better equipped for his work than he.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36
COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.