American Masters of Sculpture: Being Brief Appreciations of Some American Sculptors and of Some Phases of Sculpture in AmericaCaffin, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
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American Masters of Sculpture: Being Brief Appreciations of Some American Sculptors and of Some Phases of Sculpture in America
Caffin, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
Sculptors -- United States
The pedestal of the “Beecher” is embellished with figures. On one side a
woman and on the other a little girl is depositing a wreath, and a boy
is steadying the latter figure. They are well modelled in natural and
graceful movement, but they impart a touch of sentimentality, so alien
to Ward’s habit and, indeed, to the spirit of the statue, that I wonder
whether they were not a concession to the wish of the subscribers.
Figures again adorn the pedestal of the Garfield monument in Washington,
and among them is to be found a most successful treatment of the nude.
“The Student” is an admirable example of Ward’s knowledge of form and of
his discretion in rendering it. His ability as a decorative sculptor was
shown in the group of “Sea-horses and Victory” which crowned the
temporary Naval Arch in 1899, though executed many years before. Equally
pronounced were the joyous elevation of the forms against the sky and
the harmonious unity of the whole as a mass. It proved that Ward’s
management of composition was as thorough in a complicated group as in a
single figure. He is now engaged upon the pediment for the recently
erected Stock Exchange Building in New York. As I have seen only the
model--and that has been subjected to various modifications--it would be
premature to discuss it. But it bids fair to be a most memorable work,
fitly crowning by its magnitude and importance a long and honourable
career.
IV
DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH
Among the earlier works of Daniel C. French is a bust of Emerson, a
truly admirable rendering of the mingled nobility and sweetness of the
well-known face, of the human kindliness which warmed the pure and
abstract elevation of his mind. It reminds us that in his youth French
enjoyed acquaintance with the philosopher of Concord and came under the
influence of other famous spirits who formed the little group of high
thinkers and plain livers, with whom it was also an axiom, of more than
incidental importance, that Americans should shake their minds free of
the European point of view and develop a culture for themselves out of
the genius of their own conditions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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