Give the man room : $b The story of Gutzon BorglumCasey, Robert J. (Robert Joseph)
General
Give the man room : $b The story of Gutzon Borglum
Casey, Robert J. (Robert Joseph)
Borglum, Gutzon, 1867-1941
The eleven paintings that accompanied Lancelot and Guenevere back to
England were scenes from _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_--Queen Titania
asleep with Oberon’s love potion in her eyes; Titania’s encounter with
Bottom, the weaver; her adventures with Quince, the carpenter,
Starveling, the tailor, Snout, the tinker and Flute, the
bellows-mender--all in a fine, fantastic humor. Gutzon was still at work
on this group on June 30, 1903, which was the day before he started for
England to make delivery and supervise installation. He was very ill
with typhoid fever that year, and his cash had disappeared. Friends
about the studio took up a collection to pay his steamship fare to
Liverpool.
Borglum’s last years in England were marked by a tremendous emotional
depression. His journal, in places, becomes almost incoherent as he
attempts to analyze mental suffering. He found relief in work, and he
worked incessantly.
He painted murals for private homes and made the illustrations for at
least two books, _The Spanish Main_, with pictures of old war galleys,
and _King Arthur_, with especially fine drawings of oak trees a thousand
years old. He had some success as a portrait artist. He painted the
likenesses of a large number of the aristocracy at whose country houses
he was entertained. One of these was the portrait of Lord Mowbray, which
was exhibited at Liverpool with the Lord Mayor taking part in the
ceremonies. He mentions in his diary the painting of the composer,
Clarence Lucas, who thought it a good portrait “that possibly might also
be a work of art.”
There is also some evidence that during the late nineties he was doing
more and more work with sculpture. In his journal he mentions a lost
piece, “The Return of the Boer,” which brought considerable attention to
his carving. It showed a man on horseback returning to his ruined home.
He was a figure of complete dejection, his shoulders drooping, his head
bent down. His rifle was before him across the saddle. The horse was
sniffing at the burned bits that remained of a house. The statue brought
plenty of criticism and discussion but no money. The Parisian who cast
the group said it was _trop personnel_ to be a financial success.
Gutzon’s only copy of it was borrowed by the dancer Loie Fuller for an
exhibition and later left by her in a New York bank as security for a
loan. Presumably it lies forgotten in some vault.
Another bronze group, “Apaches Pursued,” had greater public appeal and
was exhibited in several shows in Europe. It was decidedly popular in
Turin, and a copy was bought for Kaiser Wilhelm II. It shows two horses
in full gallop, one of the riders holding to a third man whom he has
lifted off the ground in his flight. The critics were pleased by its
composition, which was as striking as its animation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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