,,the ,,spirit ,,of ,,american ,,sculpture ,illustration3 ,,study ,,for ,,head ,,of ,,nike-,,eirene ,,by ,,augustus ,,saint-,,gaudens ,,the ,,spirit ,,of ,,american ,,sculpture ,,by ,,adeline ,,adams ,,written ,,for ,,the ,,national ,,sculpture ,,society ,illustration ,,new ,,york ,,mcmxxiii ,,copyright1 #aibc1 ,,by ,,the ,,national ,,sculpture ,,society ,,preface ,any survey of the ,spirit of ,american ,sculpture must naturally take into account the ,body of ,american ,sculptors4 ,on the other hand1 the outline here offered does not attempt the preposterous task of putting everyone in his place1 and thereby producing an unmannerly and unreliable ,who's ,who in ,sculpture4 ,many sculptors whose work is dear to me are scarcely named in the following pages4 ,why8 ,because1 very frequently1 the individual achievement has been too fine to be slurred over and shunted off with the faint praise of mere listing1 while at the same time it cannot well be appreciated at deserved length1 given the limitations laid upon the present writer1--limitations temporal1 spatial1 personal4 ,again1 it often happens in art1 as in nature and in politics1 that certain forces for good are better left unmentioned2 headlines would disturb their harmonious functioning4 ,the brief annals of our sculpture may be divided either according to our wars1 or according to our times of peace4 ,the critic who chooses the former way will point out that our ,revolution called into being a national consciousness which was strengthened by the ,war of #ahab1 and which immediately thereafter sought expression in ,federal or ,state buildings1 and in their adornment by the arts4 ,side by side with national yearnings for art sprang up half-thwarted individual longings either to produce art1 or to enjoy art1 or to possess art4 ,not until the close of the ,civil ,war1 with its legacy of greater national unity and advancing prosperity1 did we find out that our education in art was too meagre to let us express in any fitting way the emotions aroused by that conflict and its costly sacrifices4 ,in the marketplace1 we were nave and unformed enough to accept with more or less satisfaction and in infinite repetition the stone soldier of commercial origin4 ,in the home1 we thoroughly enjoyed the anecdotes1 patriotic or parochial1 told by our ,rogers groups4 ,but before the ,spanish ,war was over1 our enlightenment as to the artistic value of these productions was rather general4 ,with respect to the ,rogers groups1 we passed to the other extreme2 in our headlong attempt to register culture1 we forgot that these works had performed a genuine service4 ,later1 the wave of romantic rococo noted in the 8red-blooded0 literature of the day had its parallel in some of our noisier war monuments1 creatures surging from a limbo that was neither art nor commerce4 ,since the ,world ,war1 and even before the ,world ,war1 there has been1 through our museums and other sources1 an honest effort toward coperation between art and manufacture4 ,an up-hill task but a necessary one1 in any sound national development6 ,the day of the stone soldier is over1 but whether we are laying up for ourselves a store of future regret in other forms of memorial sculpture remains to be seen4 ,thus to mark off by our wars the various chapters of our sculptural history and to develop each chapter in sequence would be in the grand style2 perhaps in a grander style than is suited to the dimensions of this sketch4 ,it has therefore seemed better to indicate certain natural divisions of the subject by means of those enterprises of peace1 our expositions4 ,the ,centennial of #ahgf1 by its cruel comparisons1 stirred our sculpture from the lethargy supposed to have overtaken it in the studios of ,american expatriates in ,rome and in ,florence4 ,until #ahgf1 we had been dreaming1 stumbling1 aspiring2 making false moves in plastic art4 ,a few early triumphs shine forth from the prevailing mediocrity2 but it must be owned that ,cooper1 ,hawthorne1 and ,emerson1 in the world of letters1 have no vigorous contemporaries in the world of sculpture4 ,during the 'eighties1 however1 a group of really strong and characteristic pieces of ,american sculpture emerges by slow degrees4 ,ward had already produced his noble equestrian statue of ,thomas4 ,he now placed his bronze ,washington in front of the ,sub-,treasury in ,new ,york1 and his ,pilgrim in ,central ,park4 ,in #ahha1 ,saint-,gaudens put out his incomparable ,farragut2 his ,puritan appeared two years after ,ward's ,pilgrim4 ,daniel ,chester ,french1 with notable work behind him1 came into his own with the exquisite group of ,gallaudet and the little deaf-mute2 in the early 'nineties he showed his ,milmore ,memorial1 7the ,angel of ,death and the ,sculptor7 a work of extraordinary appeal to both artists and laymen4 ,while these men were creating sculpture to be proud of1 younger men were conning with all their might the vigorous lessons proffered in the ,french schools1 or on ,french soil1 by ,falguire1 ,merci1 ,dubois1 ,chapu1 ,saint-,marceaux1 ,rodin1--a mighty host4 ,at the ,columbian ,exposition1 our country had abundant good work to show in sculpture from the hands of returning youth4 ,between #ahgf and #ahic were packed most of the essential lessons our sculpture has learned1 either at home or abroad4 ,no subsequent exposition has disclosed so great an advance as that noted in #ahic4 ,there has indeed been a further development of basic principles1 as well as a recent genial stylistic efflorescence in manner1 favored by many of our younger sculptors under the influence of sincere post-graduate study of archaic models4 ,and there have naturally been occasional obscure ultra-modernistic experiments not without service in the zigzag of progress2 such works are neither to be despised nor unduly exalted because they proclaim themselves revolutionary4 ,an advance as rapid as that made in sculpture during the seventeen years between the ,centennial and the ,columbian is not to be expected in the near future4 ,such an advance could occur only as a strong reaction from a feebleness not now evident1 or from a retrogression not now casting its shadow4 ,many thoughtful painters have pointed out that sculpture by its very essence is far less subject than painting to the more unfortunate inroads of ultra-modernism4 ,we sometimes worry ourselves unnecessarily because our arts and letters are not what is called 8distinctively ,american40 ,but being distinctively ,american is not in itself a merit4 ,the distinctively ,american voice1 for example1 has not yet been hailed as the international model4 ,give our sculpture time for still further expression1 and it will become as distinctively ,american as need be4 ,a just and happy exchange of culture between peoples should not be stigmatized as mere imitation4 ,oddly enough1 the first timid flowering of our ,american painting and sculpture took place among the ,quaker ,philadelphians and even among the ,puritan ,bostonians4 ,it did not follow the footsteps of the earlier settlers of ,french or ,spanish blood4 ,culture has its curves and curious weavings forward and back4 ,already in our ideals of art education a change has been noted4 ,many who have studied this subject for a lifetime now believe1 as they could not with wisdom have believed a generation ago1 that it is better for the student to get his technical training in the schools of his own country1 and to learn the beauty of foreign art and the value of foreign culture through eager vacation study abroad1 rather than through prolonged residence abroad4 ,the vacation schools of music and painting at ,fontainebleau are watched with deep interest4 ,thus far1 their results speak well for this new point of view in art study4 ,the occasion for which this modest book was made is the opening of the ,national ,sculpture ,society's exhibition in the year #aibc1 under the auspices and in the neighborhood of a distinguished group of learned societies4 ,such an occasion invites rejoicing1 rather than lamentation4 ,hence in these loosely gathered chapters little is said of commercialism1 of mechanistic tendencies1 of unhappy professional rivalries1 of mistaken ultra-modernism1 or of other burdens or bugaboos that hamper the spirit of ,american sculpture4 ,i have tried to bear in mind a saying of ,kenyon ,cox1 an accomplished critic1 yet honest at all times beyond conventional expectation4 ,mr4 ,cox was asked whether in his opinion as a critic1 a certain article on a well-known painter1 a younger contemporary1 was not too favorable in its judgments4 ,taking time to consider1 ,mr4 ,cox answered1 8,no1 to my mind1 that critique is not too favorable6 ,it brings forward much of the best that is to be found in one of our best painters1 and it doesn't harp on his defects4 ,as ,i take it1 the thing was written for intelligent readers4 ,they are able to read between the lines4 ,from what is said of the qualities1 they will know the defects40 ,,note ,in the preparation of the present work1 the author has found herself1 through the natural insistence of her own and her husband's feelings1 placed in a somewhat delicate position4 ,it remains1 therefore1 for those editing the volume to preface it with some expression of admiration1 however inadequate4 ,to sculptors1 it is needless to point out the importance of the work of ,herbert ,adams4 ,it is therefore to the lay reader that some word must be said of the man who hesitates to have recorded the admirable production of a fruitful and influential career4 ,the wisdom1 restraint1 and true sense of the just and fitting1 which for years have rendered all relation with his calm and balanced intellect the delight of friends and the aid of fellow workers1 are mirrored in an art which so easily reflects these qualities4 ,to those connected with the preparation of this exhibition it is a great pleasure to render serious tribute to the man who among sculptors has brought such faithful homage to the ,art of ,sculpture1 and whose influence must be cherished as one of the permanent forces for ,truth in the ,art of our land4 ,,the ,,committee4 ,,contents ,,page ,,preface v ,,note xv ,,chapter ,i ,,mrs4 ,,patience ,,wright ,,speaks ,,the ,,prologue #c ,,ii ,,our ,,blithe ,,beginning ,,days #bi ,,iii ,,of ,,three ,,leaders1 ,,and ,,of ,,moral ,,earnestness ,,in ,,art #dg ,,john ,,quincy ,,adams ,,ward #eg ,,augustus ,,saint-,,gaudens #fg ,,daniel ,,chester ,,french #gf ,,iv ,,of ,,expositions ,,and ,,collaborations #hg ,v ,,the ,,statue ,,and ,,the ,,bust ,,and ,,the ,,ideal ,,figure #aja ,,vi ,,our ,,equestrian ,,statues #abe ,,vii ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,relief1 ,,high ,,and ,,low #ade ,,viii ,,of ,,garden ,,sculpture ,,and ,,ornament #aei ,,ix ,,of ,,small ,,bronzes ,,and ,,great ,,crafts #agg ,x ,,the ,,national ,,sculpture ,,society #aia ,,xi ,,influences1 ,,going ,,and ,,coming #bac ,,illustrations ,,facing ,,study ,,for ,,head ,,of ,,nike-,,eirene ,title ,by ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens ,,page ,,statue ,,of ,,washington #h ,by ,jean ,antoine ,houdon ,,bust ,,of ,,washington ,,at ,,mount ,,vernon #bf ,by ,jean ,antoine ,houdon ,,clytie #db ,by ,william ,h4 ,rinehart ,,white ,,captive #dd ,by ,erastus ,d4 ,palmer ,,statue ,,of ,,washington #fb ,by ,john ,quincy ,adams ,ward ,,statue ,,of ,,admiral ,,farragut #fh ,by ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens ,,memory #gh ,by ,daniel ,chester ,french ,,statue ,,of ,,maj4-,,gen4 ,,macomb #ajh ,by ,adolph ,a4 ,weinman ,,portrait ,,bust ,,of ,j4 ,q4 ,a4 ,,ward #aah ,by ,charles ,h4 ,niehaus ,,marble ,,portrait ,,of ,,baby #abj ,by ,paul ,manship ,,the ,,golden ,,hour #abb ,by ,rudolph ,evans ,,horse ,,tamers #acf ,by ,f4 ,w4 ,mac,monnies ,,equestrian ,,statue ,,of ,,general ,,sherman #adb ,by ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens ,,welch ,,monument #adh ,by ,herbert ,adams ,,victory #aeb ,by ,james ,earl ,fraser ,,plaquette #aef ,by ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens ,,bacchante #afb ,by ,f4 ,w4 ,mac,monnies ,,fountain ,,figure #afd ,by ,janet ,scudder ,,centaur ,,and ,,dryad #ahj ,by ,paul ,manship ,,victory #bcd ,by ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens ,,the ,,spirit ,,of ,,american ,,sculpture ,,chapter ,i ,,mrs4 ,,patience ,,wright ,,speaks ,,the ,,prologue ,i ,what a pity that ,thackeray1 surveying our pre-,revolutionary ,american world in the interest of his ,esmond and his ,virginians1 had not chanced to espy the valiant figure of our first ,american sculptor1 ,mrs4 ,patience ,lovell ,wright of ,new ,jersey1--,quaker1 wax-image-maker1 traveler1 keen ,republican observer of the moods of ,british royalty and the movements of ,british troops6 ,had his mind's eye but once seen her in her eagerly-frequented rooms on ,pall ,mall1 with the notables of the town literally under her thumb1 in wax1 and over her shoulder1 in the flesh1 we might have had from his pen a portrait worthy to live beside that of ,beatrix1 or of ,madam ,esmond1 or of the ,fotheringay herself4 ,similarly1 if ,lytton ,strachey1 building his ,books and ,characters1 had followed out a line or two of ,horace ,walpole's concerning the 8artistess10 he might have given us a ,mrs4 ,wright fully as engaging as his ,madame du ,deffand1 perhaps almost as 8inexplicable1 grand1 preposterous0 as his ,lady ,hester4 ,such joys were not to be ours4 ,some of the traits that ,thackeray and ,strachey might have dwelt on for our delight have been well sketched by4 ,abigail ,adams1 incorruptible eye-witness and letter-writer4 ,mrs4 ,adams1 though taken aback by the 8hearty buss0 with which the sculptress greeted ladies and gentlemen alike1 observed that 8there was an old clergyman sitting reading a paper in the middle of the room1 and though ,i went prepared to see strong representations of real life1 ,i was effectually deceived in this figure for ten minutes1 and was finally told that it was only wax40 ,and ,elkanah ,watson1 meeting ,mrs4 ,wright in ,paris1 where she was living in her dual capacity as artist and patriot1 notes that 8the wild flights of her powerful mind stamped originality on all her acts and language40 ,he tells us that the ,british king and queen often visited her in her ,london rooms1 where they would induce her to work on her heads regardless of their presence1 and where1 at times1 as if forgetting mundane deferences in the swirl of her inspiration1 she would address them offhand as ,george and ,charlotte4 ,the intrepid if somewhat incongruous figure of this ,quaker artist abroad will serve very well as herald or prologue to the drama of ,american sculpture4 ,nor can ,i think that either ,mr4 ,greenough or ,mr4 ,powers1 ,mr4 ,ward or ,mr4 ,saint-,gaudens1 ,mr4 ,french or the very youngest sculptor newly laureled by our ,american ,academy in ,rome would object to that assignment of rle4 ,surely in any play1 it is allowed that the herald may seem somewhat more fantastic and legendary than the kings and counselors that come after4 ,mrs4 ,wright and her wax-works are important to us1 but not because anyone now accounts her the 8,promethean modeller0 her enthusiastic contemporaries charged her with being4 ,she is important because her vogue reveals the artless taste of her time1 its awe in the presence of perfect imitations of nature4 ,not that such awe is unknown to-day in the world of art4 ,indeed1 our herald brings vigorously upon the scene one of the major problems that still perplex the ,american sculptor in his work4 ,i mean the problem of likenesses1 those 8strong representations of real life10 as ,abigail ,adams would say4 ,,ii ,a strong representation of real life was exactly what ,thomas ,jefferson wanted for the ,state ,capitol of ,virginia when he induced the great ,french sculptor ,houdon to 8leave the statues of ,kings unfinished10 and to cross the ,atlantic to take casts1 measurements1 and artistic cognizance of the person of ,george ,washington1 in order to create that marble portrait statue still holding its own in the good top light of the ,rotunda at ,richmond4 ,to cross the ,atlantic1 what an adventure for a home-keeping ,frenchman in the eighteenth century6 ,yet in the year #aghe1 there must have been uneasiness at home as well as abroad for ,monsieur ,houdon1 so soon to become le citoyen ,houdon4 ,in the midst of our early ,republican simplicities1 there had been talk of an equestrian statue also4 ,justified in the hope of obtaining the commission equestrian as well as the commission pedestrian1 ,houdon accordingly spends a fortnight at ,mount ,vernon1 taking casts1 and 8forming the ,general's bust in plaister40 ,later1 however1 the project of the equestrian statue is dropped1 to ,houdon's natural regret4 ,illustration3 ,,statue ,,of ,,washington ,,by ,,jean ,,antoine ,,houdon 8,we shall regulate the article of expense as conomically as we can with justice to the wishes of the world10 writes ,jefferson to ,governor ,harrison1 concerning the standing statue4 8,we are agreed in one circumstance1 that the size shall be precisely that of life40 ,jefferson gives patriotic reasons for that decision as to size2 he adds with excellent artistic judgment1 8,we are sensible that the eye alone considered will not be quite as well satisfied40 ,a generation later1 writing from ,monticello in regard to the statue of ,washington that the legislature of ,north ,carolina desires to order1 he declares that this work should be somewhat larger than life4 ,a strict realism no longer delights him4 ,with true ,jeffersonian divination of popular currents1 he leans now toward the pseudo-classic ideal already dominant in ,european studios4 ,as to the costume chosen1 he finds that 8every person of taste in ,europe would be for the ,roman4444 ,our boots and regimentals have a very puny effect40 ,in short1 8,old ,canova of ,rome0 is the artist ,north ,carolina should employ4 ,it is pleasant to note that just as ,houdon1 having 8solemnly and feelingly protested against the inadequacy of the price1 evidently undertook the work from motives of reputation alone10 so too ,canova is 8animated with ardent zeal to prove himself worthy of so great a subject40 ,thus happily are begun those steadfastly continued artistic relations between the ,united ,states and the two ,european countries in which art prospers as the light and livelihood of the people4 ,washington himself1 when the ,houdon portrait statue is projected1 plays an admirably discreet part in the art criticism of the moment4 ,he writes to ,jefferson1 on ,august #a1 #aghf3 8,in answer to your obliging enquiries respecting the dress1 attitude1 etc41 which ,i would wish to have given to the statue in question1 ,i have only to observe that1 not having sufficient knowledge in the art of sculpture to oppose my judgment to the taste of ,connoisseurs1 ,i do not desire to dictate in the matter40 ,how unlike the home life of ,william ,hohenzollern6 ,and how often the thoughtful sculptor of to-day has wished that ,washington's simple dignity in admitting an insufficiency of 8knowledge in the art of sculpture0 might be pondered and taken to heart by those of us who are not qualified 8to dictate in the matter06 ,in this our free country of the self-elected critic1 the temple of art is at all hours invaded by those who cheerily announce that 8they do not know much10 but who nevertheless follow the example of ,william ,,ii rather than of our first ,president4 ,all the ,jefferson correspondence respecting these two statues of ,washington is of vital interest to the student of our art history4 ,our young ,republic1 in its early strivings toward art1 was fortunate in having an adviser as well-advised as the master of ,monticello4 ,it was ,thomas ,jefferson who guided inquiring state legislatures1 now toward ,houdon1 the powerful ,french realist1 and again toward ,canova1 the distinguished ,italian idealist4 ,through ,jefferson's hands1 our ,american sculpture first received those rich streams of influence1 realism and idealism1 both so necessary in any living national art4 ,for realism and idealism1 however often misnamed or over-praised or discredited1 each after the other1 will continue to shape the artist's interpretation of his vision of life4 ,today1 when in our literature books as fundamentally unlike as ,maria ,chapdelaine and ,babbitt run their race side by side as popular favorites1 we cannot doubt the hold of either classicism or naturalism on our lives and times4 ,gilbert ,murray1 in his notes on the ,hippolytus1 writes that its matchless closing scene 8proves the ultimate falseness of the distinction between classical and romantic4 ,the highest poetry has the beauty of both40 ,,iii ,returning to the ,quaker lady who speaks our prologue1 and conning once more the tale of her works in all their brisk navet1 the sympathetic student will easily evoke the difficult conditions under which sculpture first reared its head in our country4 ,sculpture1 though an art manifestly answering one of the earliest religious needs of primitive man1 7and indeed the very first of all the arts to fall under the ban of the censor7 is an art much hindered and abridged during large pioneer movements4 ,thus the ,mayflower1 that greatly accommodating vessel1 may have brought over ,elder ,brewster's chest or some fair ,priscilla's spinning-wheel1 but we may be sure that never a statue came out of her hold4 ,neither architecture nor painting suffered quite as much as sculpture in that historic sea-change of the early seventeenth century4 ,as the turtle carries his house on his back1 so the architect1 in a sense1 may carry his home in his pocket4 ,the drawings and inherited traditions of cabinet-makers1 carpenters1 and architects supplied our colonists with excellent models for furniture1 for mansions1 for churches1 for state-houses4 ,such models were not slavishly followed4 ,they were adapted1 often with great originality and skill1 sometimes with creative genius4 ,the colonists' sense of form gratified itself in these directions1 since the time was not ripe for sculpture4 ,diligent in fostering both foreign importations and local industry1 the more prosperous of our forefathers had good houses1 good furniture1 good silver1 good clothes1 and even good paintings long before they had any good sculpture4 ,statues1 unlike chocolate-pots and meeting-houses1 cannot1 even when all materials are given1 be magically called into existence from a sheaf of plans and specifications placed in the hands of competent artisans4 ,a considerable body of sculpture in permanent form implies a background of orderly civilization1 well developed on its industrial side4 ,the marble quarry and the bronze foundry do not spring up over-night in mushroom growth4 ,they are the foster-children of slow time4 ,we are called an inventive1 craftsmanlike people1 but it was not until the year #ahdg that the first casting of a bronze statue was accomplished in our country4 ,the statue was of the ,boston astronomer1 ,dr4 ,bowditch1 and by the ,english sculptor1 ,ball ,hughes4 ,the original bronze cast was not a wholly successful piece of work2 it was long ago replaced by a bronze from a ,french foundry4 ,but those familiar with the difficulties of the situation will recall ,dr4 ,johnson's observation about the dog walking on his hind legs4 8,it is not done well1 but you are surprised to find it done at all40 ,,iv ,however1 we need not harp too long and too mournfully on the physical impediments in our sculptural start4 ,enormous as these were1 they were less mighty than the spiritual obstacles set up by time and place4 ,first of all1 it is to be remembered that the ,european world of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was moving on in a mild1 manifest1 not necessarily permanent decline in creative power as shown through the graphic arts4 ,the waves of that decline reached even our own stern coast4 ,it is safe to say that had the ,american colonists' hour coincided with an hour of large renascence in art throughout ,europe1 our forefathers1 whether ,cavalier or ,roundhead1 would earlier have found room for art as a need and a natural expression of the freer life they sought4 ,as for the distinctively ,puritan view1 that view too often 7though perhaps not as often as we now think7 denied and persecuted beauty in the fierce ,puritan concentration upon holiness4 ,it is true that art1 in its blither and more genial guise1 slips away from the society of the sour-visaged4 ,but it is also true that a great tragic expression in art sometimes bursts uncontrollably from peoples or persons with minds exacerbated by long fortitudes4 ,we learn this from the ,belgian sculptor ,meunier brooding over his brothers of the ,black ,country1 from the ,serbian sculptor ,mestrovic immortalizing in stone his country's stern legends1 from the poet ,dante treading his ,inferno4 ,but the ,florentine and the ,serbian and the ,belgian produced their art under their native skies4 ,they were not torn up by the roots to live in a strange land4 ,yes1 the main impediment in early ,american art was spiritual rather than material4 ,when we see to-day in some lonely1 half-forgotten ,new ,england village a spacious1 nobly-designed1 admirably-built meeting-house1 capping the very crest of a high rock-ribbed hill of exceeding difficulty1 7the church at ,acworth will serve as an example7 we uncover our heads before the efforts of our fathers to erect a house of prayer4 ,the spirit moved them4 ,nothing less would have sufficed in what they did and suffered4 ,the obstacles in their path were many and great1 but being material1 were surmounted4 ,in our early strivings toward sculpture1 the obstacles were both spiritual and material1 and generally speaking1 the obstacles won the day4 ,we had no noteworthy early native sculpture1 largely because we lacked the passion to create it4 ,that passion was not dead1 but it lay dormant during the long wintry season that preceded the spring of our national consciousness4 ,in the mean time1 men and women died1 and had their humble carved slate headstones2 ships put out to sea1 glorying in their robust wooden figure-heads of ,american make4 ,benjamin ,west's legendary adventure with his cat's-fur brushes and his ,amerind colors and his baby sister's likeness no doubt had its sculptural counterpart in the creative endeavor of many an unknown fire-side whittler4 ,these obscure dramas of artistic effort counted2 though meagre and lowly1 they were not in vain2 they made for craftsmanship1 art's helper4 ,referring to more important matters1 we do not forget ,william ,rush's full-length statue of ,washington1 hewn from wood1 or his soldierly self-portrait1 carved from a pine log2 or the early efforts1 in portraiture1 of ,dixey1 in ,new ,jersey1 of ,augur in ,connecticut2 of ,john ,frazee1 that young stone-cutter to whom we owe the first marble portrait bust chiseled in the ,united ,states1 as late as the year #ahbd4 ,we remember also the ,browere life-masks1 created by a secret process1 and useful still as historic data4 ,interesting and emphatic as are the personalities of all these early workers1 that of ,william ,rush is by far the most significant4 ,in literal truth1 ,patience ,wright was merely our first sculptress1 whose work must bear the implications of frailty lent by that name4 ,but ,william ,rush was our first sculptor4 ,in his youth he was a soldier of the ,revolution1 and in later life he was long a member of the ,council of ,philadelphia2 his career as artist and as citizen won respect for the early art life of our country4 ,born in ,philadelphia in #agef1 he was twenty-nine when ,houdon sojourned in that town4 ,having been apprenticed when very young1 ,rush was already well-known as a carver of ships' figure-heads1 work in which he continued to be successful throughout his long and busy life4 ,his theory and practice in wood-carving conformed to ,michelangelo's ,gothic creed1 somewhat outworn among sculptors1 but of late restored to respect4 ,william ,rush earnestly believed that the carver should see his vision in the block1 and realize its image by hewing away the superfluous shell4 ,he was modern enough at times to stand by while directing a workman to chop here and cut there and slice somewhere else1 so that he himself could save his own energy for keeping his vision clear4 ,of his ,spirit of the ,schuylkill1 originally in wood but since translated into bronze and still standing over its basin in ,fairmount ,park1 the chronicles of its day declared that 8no greater piece of art was to be found in all the world40 ,the present age will hardly consider this draped figure the equal1 say1 of the ,maidens of the ,erechtheum4 ,yet the work1 with its companion pieces1 the ,schuylkill in ,chains and the ,schuylkill ,released1 has its own vigorous archaic classicism which modern students may well ponder4 ,rush was one of the planners and founders of the ,pennsylvania ,academy of ,fine ,arts4 ,after this was finally established in #ahje1 our first ,american art organization1 he was one of its directors until his death4 ,as a many-sided man of action and of counsel1 of intelligence and of culture1 he sums up the best to be found in the varied characters of our pioneer artists1 personages worthy of our deepest respect4 ,we shall be too quick despairers if we brood over the fact that most of their works show ,yankee ingenuity rather than ,promethean fire4 ,the inventive spirit is part of our pioneer heritage2 it reappears rather often in our art history4 ,robert ,fulton1 as ,mr4 ,isham reminds us in his story of ,american painting1 was a promising pupil in ,benjamin ,west's ,london studio4 8,from there he went to ,paris1 where he remained seven years1 painting easel pictures1 and also the first panorama seen there1 whose memory is still preserved in the name of the ,passage des ,panoramas40 ,morse is yet another classic example of ,american genius serving both art and science4 ,one of the later pupils of ,west1 he had not only painted vigorous and important pictures but had also played a striking part in the founding of our ,national ,academy of ,design before he finally 8wreaked his genius0 on his invention of the telegraph4 ,hiram ,powers1 sculptor of the ,greek ,slave1 in youth acquired merit from the clock-work devices by which he enhanced the moving charms of the wax figures he modeled for a museum in ,cincinnati4 ,today1 in our journalistic canvassings of popular opinion as to contemporary ,american greatness1 we find that in the public mind1 ,edison's name leads all the rest4 ,the prickly palm of greatness is awarded not to a teacher1 to a publicist1 to a writer1 to a political leader1 or to an artist in any guise whatever1 but to an inventor4 ,inventive genius thus claims our highest admiration2 inventive genius may indeed be our highest national characteristic4 ,if so1 it is worth while 7and not in the least 8devastating07 to consider whether the same inventiveness that animates the early art-forms of ,william ,rush's followers does not also contribute something to the very sophisticated creations of our gifted and fortunately well-trained young sculptors with the dernier cri from ,crete in their minds and at their finger-tips4 ,the story of ,american sculpture cannot be told under a parable of a chain with equally strong links throughout4 ,one thinks rather of a slender thread1 which may be fastened to a cord1 which will draw up a strong rope1 which will in turn attach itself to a powerful cable4 ,if early ,yankee ingenuity is that slender thread1 let us thank ,god for it1 and hope for better things4 ,v ,with the dawn of our national consciousness just after the dark hours of the ,revolution1 a natural human love for the likeness1 strengthened by a generous surrender to hero-worship1 is already arousing in us a longing for an art that will express our patriotic emotions4 ,if achievement alone be considered1 there is surely a great gulf fixed between ,patience ,wright and ,jean ,antoine ,houdon4 ,but the same sincere passion fires ,quakeress and citoyen2 their common aim is a strong representation of real life1 transfigured by the flame of the spirit burning in the lamp of clay4 ,it is recorded that an overpowering sense of ,washington's greatness sometimes actually impeded those artists who aspired to reveal him1 body and soul1 to posterity4 ,posterity then is fortunate because our fathers received from ,houdon's genius not only the ,washington statue1 but also seven noble portrait busts1 those of ,franklin1 ,paul ,jones1 ,washington1 ,lafayette1 ,jefferson1 ,fulton1 and ,joel ,barlow1 to mention them in the order of their creation1 from #aggh to #ahjc4 ,these virile interpretations of character were not lost in the ins and outs of our ,atlantic coast-line4 ,even to this day1 some one or other of them often reappears in public view1 to excite interest1 admiration1 and controversy4 ,but in the early nineteenth century1 as is shown by ,jefferson's counsel to the ,north ,carolina legislature1 ,conova1 rather than ,houdon1 has become the name to conjure with4 ,even in portraiture1 realism has given way to pseudo-classicism1 long before ,greenough arrives on the stage with his ,washington as the ,olympian ,zeus1 a colossal half-draped marble figure designed for a shrine within the ,capitol4 ,illustration3 ,,bust ,,of ,,washington1 ,,at ,,mount ,,vernon ,,by ,,jean ,,antoine ,,houdon ,,chapter ,,ii ,,our ,,blithe ,,beginning ,,days ,i ,alive and kicking2 better than we now realize1 the old phrase fits our young ,american art of the early nineteenth century4 ,in ,boston1 ,mr4 ,bulfinch is packing his triangles and ,t-squares for a journey to ,washington1 where he is to remain twelve years as ,latrobe's successor as architect of the ,capitol4 ,in ,new ,york1 morning-star young art-students are passionately performing their historic ritual of fighting the janitor and founding new movements2 even ,colonel ,trumbull is defied2 hence1 in #ahbe1 our ,national ,academy of ,design4 ,in ,philadelphia1 harmony presides over the ,pennsylvania ,academy of ,fine ,arts4 ,but in ,washington1 what commotion6 ,restorations are to be made after the fires of the ,british2 there are new excavations1 new aspirations4 ,there's sculptor's work here for many a year4 ,bronze doors must be created1 in the supposed manner of ,ghiberti2 pediments must be populated2 and what is a dome without its colossal figure of ,freedom8 ,greenough and ,crawford and ,randolph ,rogers are the sculptors of the hour4 ,and always ,hiram ,powers1 somewhat apart from the ,washington bustle4 ,modern imagination fails to see those early craftsmen as they really were4 ,because they are dead to us now1 we fall into the error of thinking that they always were dead1 anyway2 the stilly sort of sculpture they often made sustains us in that illusion4 ,but when we look into their lives1 and hear their sayings1 we learn1 almost with a shock1 that these men felt deeply1 even while they expressed themselves feebly in their art4 ,living amidst heaped riches of opportunity1 the art-student of to-day can scarcely imagine the bleak poverty of artistic resource that ,greenough and ,crawford and ,powers left behind them when they sailed away to ,rome or to ,florence4 ,nowadays1 art-schools flourish here3 casts of good sculpture abound2 photographs of masterpieces may be had at a small price4 ,museums freely show examples of the arts of all nations1 and intelligently arrange these displays to serve the immediate needs of students2 in short1 they do a great work so well that they have already become a target for so-called criticism from self-styled intellectuals exposing their wits in the columns of would-be radical journals4 ,things were very different in ,greenough's time4 ,there were indeed a few collections of casts1 probably with soiled noses2 there were portfolios of steel engravings1 that sometimes bore false witness against beauty4 ,knowing the leanness of those early years1 we can but wonder at the large vision of our fathers in considering our capital city2 and we can but thank our lucky ,stars and ,stripes for the bond of sympathy between our young ,republic and ,france1 a sympathy partly responsible for the happy choice of ,general ,washington's aid1 ,major ,pierre ,l',enfant1 as our first city planner4 ,the spirit of ,l',enfant's work has survived the shocks of time and senates2 that plan of the year #agib 7since extended in accordance with the principles of design it embodied7 is still regarded as 8at once the finest and most comprehensive plan ever devised for a capital city40 ,those lean years were not by any means the day of small things2 it is to this hour a blessing for sculpture and for architecture that ,washington and ,jefferson and ,l',enfant laid large foundations for the seat of ,government4 ,a century ago1 the continued building and re-building of the ,capitol expressed a profound national feeling2 the souls of our sculptors1 as far as we had sculptors1 were thrilled with desire to add plastic beauty to its gates and gables4 ,at least one of those great dreams was destined to end as food for journalistic jibes4 ,greenough's colossal marble ,washington as the ,olympian ,zeus1 a grandiose conception pored over for seven years in ,italy1 proved to be too large and heavy for the indoor placing intended for it1 and it was doomed to be set up outside the ,capitol for the public to sharpen its wits upon4 ,unfavorably shown1 it is unjustly viewed4 ,one recalls with pleasure ,saint-,gaudens's gentle judgments of our pioneer sculptors and their handiwork4 8,those men were greater than we know10 he would say4 ,he refused to join in any of our modern merriment at the expense of the ,olympian ,zeus4 ,esprit de corps compelled him to recognize in ,greenough some large trace of the artist as well as the craftsman4 ,,ii ,consider for a moment the attractive young ,irish-,american sculptor ,crawford standing rapt before his splendidly blank ,senate pediment1 with his theme of the ,past and ,present of the ,republic in his eye4 ,those were our blithe beginning days when a sculptor might confront his pediment with a heart unburdened by the remembrance of other men's failures in pediments1 and with a mind undisciplined by any previous knowledge of the needs of pediments4 ,he did not dread those bitter acuities of space at right and left1 those angles which to modern discrimination often seem so grossly overstuffed when filled1 so tragically vacant when left 8to let40 ,he had never heard of the 8orchestration of shadows10 or of 8musical repetitions10 or of 8blonde modeling10 or of 8keeping the masses white10 or of 8the creative spiral10 or of 8mastery through the golden diagonal40 ,he had never been adjured1 like the young student ,saint-,gaudens1 to 8beware the boule de suif02 on the other hand1 he had never been advised1 with students coming after ,saint-,gaudens1 to seek richness of modeling by means of 8fatty ends40 ,sculptural color he would probably have regarded as having something to do with paint4 ,he of course had his own patter1 blown abroad by the writers of a too prosaic poetry and a too poetic prose4 ,the real writers1 too1 used to lend a hand in presenting art to the public4 ,when the genius of ,edward ,everett sprang to the rescue of ,greenough's ,washington1 and when ,hawthorne sent out winged words about little ,miss ,hosmer's ,zenobia1 sculpture was receiving from scholarship a needed sort of first aid4 ,to return to the ,capitol pediment1 ,crawford's intention and attitude were quite uncomplicated4 ,he had but to snatch the largest theme in sight1 and to do his best with shaping its figures one by one inside his triangle of grandeur4 ,the marvel is that he came so near to success4 ,the thing has a kind of distinction from the man's singleness of aim4 ,since then1 scores of our sculptors from coast to coast have solved the pediment problem with varying success4 ,many of them bring a highly personal and interesting solution4 ,ward1 ,bartlett1 ,french1 ,o',connor1 ,bitter1 ,weinman1 the ,piccirillis1--these names but begin the list4 ,the world calls us a wasteful nation1 a nation that unbuilds as it builds4 ,in the face of this1 it is pleasant to know that only a few months ago1 ,mr4 ,bartlett's handsome ,peace ,protecting ,genius has been set up in the ,house pediment1 to match ,crawford's ,past and ,present of the ,republic at the ,senate wing4 ,nearly a century has elapsed since the ,capitol first busied itself with pedimental decorations4 ,our sculpture has had time to learn in these years4 ,,iii ,greenough came first in our line of scholarly sculptors1 that class to which ,w4 ,w4 ,story later lent great lustre4 ,a ,latin inscription of five lines1 beginning 8,simulacrum istud0 and ending 8,horatius ,greenough faciebat0 marks the huge ,washington statue4 ,well1 if ,i rightly understand this sculptor1 ,i like his 8faciebat40 ,it seems more conscientious and less cocksure than the 8fecit0 with which our sculptors sometimes grace their signatures1 and it is certainly not so gruff as the laconic 8sc40 ,between its eight letters one reads the coming and going of those seven diligent ,italian years2 and we shall deceive ourselves if we count those years wholly lost for our ,american art4 ,if only ,greenough could have enjoyed some of the surplusage of admiration given to his contemporary ,powers for his ,greek ,slave with her well-smoothed body1 her manacled ,medicean hand1 and the accurately fringed mantle at her feet6 ,though expressly advertised as a nude figure1 she is dressed from top to toe in a most unfleshly hard-soft technique which our time calls incompetent1 but which #ahdg styled 8the spiritualization of the marble40 ,the personality of the artist counted very largely in those days2 while ,greenough was scholarly and ,crawford attractive1 and while ,randolph ,rogers with his bronze doors and his ,nydia was what would now be called a good 8go-getter10 ,hiram ,powers was easily the main spellbinder of the early group4 ,with the exception of ,rodin's ,balzac of fifty years later1 no statue of the nineteenth century has ever been so famous as the ,greek ,slave4 ,it is one of the paradoxes of art that this strangely ill-assorted pair go down the corridors of that great age together1 united solely by the bond of greatest fame4 ,it is worth while to examine the two1 placed side by side in the museum of our minds4 ,both are so well known through prints and photographs that many persons who have never really seen either one face to face1 now fancy that they have studied both at close range4 ,both are sculptural anecdotes2 one is told with a leisurely abundance of detail1 the other with a swift dash for the climax4 ,the ,vermonter's statue is surely meant to be a conscientious rendering 8from the ,nudo10 as our grandparents phrased it1 but the ,frenchman1 in his passion to translate into sculpture a force of literature1 has gone far beyond what was to him a daily commonplace1 the study of flesh4 ,as for the mere apparel of the subject1 one man has scheduled it to the last stitch1 while the other has piled it up vehemently into a shapeless monolith from which emerges the triumphant head4 ,each sculptor doubtless threw his whole soul into revealing the spirit of the matter in hand4 ,which of the two has succeeded8 ,if the parallel becomes deadly here1 ,mr4 ,powers has brought it on himself by his extraordinary fame in three countries4 ,everything conspired for the celebrity of the ,slave1--her creation in ,italy1 her fortunate dbut in ,england1 her travels to ,america1 and1 best of all1 that body of clergymen deputed to pass upon her moral status4 ,one can but wonder whether every last one of these took the matter seriously1 or whether some one of them winked at some other during the deliberations4 ,the sculptor made a modest number of copies of his masterpiece4 ,but other sculptors reproduced their marble visions by the baker's dozen1 by the score4 ,in fact1 only yesterday a venerable eye-witness of those times reported that a certain ,american sculptor disposed of no less than two hundred marble copies of a life-sized ideal figure4 ,appalling iteration6 ,one asks where all the marble came from1 and whither it all went4 ,and that sculptor apparently had no idea that in this business of the two hundred copies he was showing himself two hundred times as much salesman as artist4 ,fashions alter1 in ethics as in art4 ,to-day1 such a practitioner would hardly be persona grata in the ,national ,sculpture ,society4 ,,iv ,meanwhile a young modern sculptor at my elbow very civilly inquires1 8,but why the devil didn't those old boys do their home stuff80 ,the obvious answer would be1 that if the home is where the heart is1 then in a very real sense they did do their home stuff4 ,they were not at home among the ,vermont mountains1 or by the ,great ,lakes4 ,they felt that their birthright in art called them away from their first birthplace to their second4 ,very soon1 too1 the all-absorbing topic of slavery will be presented by our sculptors1 in a different way and under a more timely aspect4 ,long before ,thomas ,ball places his ,emancipation groups in ,washington and in ,boston1 ,ward has produced his ,freedman1 and ,john ,rogers the ,slave ,auction that in #ahfj heralds his long series of popular groups4 ,choosing subjects both classic and realistic1 ,miss ,hosmer1 ,miss ,ream and other women sculptors have a considerable vogue4 ,from that earlier period remain beautiful classic works by ,rinehart1 founder of the ,rinehart scholarship which much later send abroad ,hermon ,mac,neil1 one of the most distinguished of our modern sculptors1 and now ,president of our ,national ,sculpture ,society4 ,rinehart's ,clytie1 coming but a few years after the ,greek ,slave1 shows a marked advance over her more famous sister4 ,and ,erastus ,palmer's winning ,white ,captive1 although not new in theme1 has a great freshness1 a delicate realism of treatment4 ,to quote from my article on the exhibition of contemporary sculpture at the ,metropolitan ,museum1 8,no less interesting to the student of sculpture is the kaleidoscopic juxtaposition of ,palmer and ,manship1 two artists of two different generations4 ,only the width of a room parts the ,white ,captive from the ,girl with ,gazelles1 from which we note that in aim these men are not so different as we once had dreamed4444 ,as to manner1 much might be said besides these two obvious truths2 first1 that the newest manner is often the oldest1 or at least the longest forgotten at the time of its resuscitation1 it being a thing which for some obscure human reason or other #8men want dug up again'2 and next1 that the best manner is that which scarcely shows as a manner at all1 but is taken for granted as accompaniment of something more important1 the matter and the spirit40 ,it would appear that the young men of to-day are doing much the same thing as 8those old boys0 my sculptor friend speaks of3 they are seeking modern inspiration from ancient models1 but they are doing it with more knowledge1 more grace1 more humor1 more assurance1 more style4 ,style8 ,perhaps the right word is stylization4 ,illustration3 ,,clytie ,,by ,,william ,h4 ,,rinehart ,illustration3 ,,white ,,captive ,,by ,,erastus ,d4 ,,palmer ,,chapter ,,iii ,,of ,,three ,,leaders1 ,,and ,,of ,,moral ,,earnestness ,,in ,,art ,i ,moral earnestness8 ,i use both words gladly1 and without apology4 ,why should any one fear that two words so packed with meaning should breed ennui8 ,a curious fact about our contemporary criticism of art and literature is this3 that a criticism which constantly declares itself to be courageous in all ways1 and which really has proved itself to be courageous in many ways1 often scurries away affrighted the moment it grazes the word moral4 ,but why8 ,does it fear the lash of epithets such as ,pharisee1 ,philistine1 ,victorian8 ,the sting has long ago gone out of those hard names4 ,over and over again1 the critic will aim some well-considered attack upon a certain specified baseness that he perceives and abhors in literature or in art2 and then1 before he finishes his good work1 7and you can see from his look that he believes it to be good work7 he suddenly decamps1 with the observation1 8,but this is not in the least a question of morals2 it is a question of artistic taste40 ,sometimes his reader cannot help thinking1 by contrast1 of that quick word of the old ,greek dramatist1 protesting against some of the lewd myths of his religion1 8,say not there be adulterers in heaven1 ,nor prisoner gods and jailers3--long ago ,my heart hath named it vile and shall not alter60 ,if someone nowadays should speak like that1 might it not clear the air8 ,i mean1 some valued critic of our arts and letters4 ,as it is1 we of today leave such work to the censor4 ,and our democracy1 avid for class distinctions1 accounts the censor considerably lower than the angels4 ,the censor1 poor soul1 might as well slink at once into the society of the executioner1 that most dejected1 most rejected figure in history4 ,when the censor says1 in his own way1 8,my heart hath named it vile10 nobody pays much attention4 ,but the world might look up if some urbane and trusted critic would write with the moral earnestness of ,euripides1 dodging nothing4 ,kenyon ,cox used to do so4 ,what ,i am driving at is this3 ,without moral earnestness1 7very probably the ,french would call it seriousness7 art cannot prosper in a strange country1 under unnative sky4 ,there would be no foundation for laying the cornerstones of art1 let alone for building its high-erected arches4 ,it is a solemn thought1 is it not1 that ,american sculptors are today placing their creations on soil that never before was moulded into forms of vivid art such as the ,old ,world knew in the dawn of human culture8 ,for with due regard to our ancient ,aztec civilization from ,zui to ,cuzco1 our pre-historic ,new ,world has nothing to show in any way comparable with those free forms sketched twenty thousand years ago on the walls of the paleolithic caverns in ,southwestern ,europe1 in the very regions where the nineteenth century masters of sculpture were born4 ,to this day1 ,american artists have all the responsibility that comes with the beginnings and transplantings of culture4 ,they are ancestors4 ,,ii ,euripides was creator rather than critic4 ,it may be that the moral earnestness we need must come to us in a thousand unseen ways through the reconciling hands of creation1 rather than in one way through the tongue or pen of the critic4 ,i shall not say that this quality of moral earnestness is found everywhere in ,american sculpture4 ,but ,i know that it is found in many places1 and in nearly all the high places4 ,moral earnestness is the very foundation of the only sort of artistic conscience that amounts to much as a contribution toward the higher life in art4 ,it was a strongly developed artistic conscience that often impelled ,shrady1 like ,saint-,gaudens before him1 to break the letter of some lesser clause of his contract1 in order to keep faith with the spirit of the whole4 ,consider the moral earnestness of ,george ,grey ,barnard1 one of the few modern masters of the imagination as it speaks in stone4 ,you will find that in ,barnard this earnestness is part and parcel of the artist he now is2 just as it was once part and parcel of ,barnard the young student1 devoting intense study to the exacting yet large processes of the marble cutter2 and by marble cutter ,i mean not the practitioner1 the doomed copyist1 but the sort of marble cutter that might call ,michelangelo kinsman1 and be at ease on the ,acropolis with ,pheidias and his men4 ,and even if1 like myself1 you cannot make ,barnard's bronze presentment of ,lincoln square with your own thrice dear and clear image of this great man1 this great symbol of ,american statesmanship1 you will grant that only a high integrity of purpose in the matter could have kept the sculptor steadfast in the truth as he saw it4 ,this fundamental earnestness of ,barnard's adds a distinction to his most casual or even whimsical words concerning art4 ,when he talks to you about 8the cheekbones that make the pathos of a face10 a dozen examples of what he means fill your memory4 ,,iii ,it is a very happy thing for our sculpture that the three men who have most definitely guided its destinies through the past forty years1--,ward1 ,saint-,gaudens1 ,french1--are hailed as men of moral force4 ,and it is a special cause for congratulation that ,mr4 ,french1 the youngest-born of the three1 still remains with us1 still vigorous in achievement4 ,one expects moral earnestness from ,mr4 ,french1 a ,new ,englander of gracious ancestry1 born and bred in the very happiest circumstances of ,new ,england life1 and growing up gaily in the light-and-shade of ,concord philosophy4 ,one expects it from ,mr4 ,ward1 with his open-air ,ohio boyhood of mingled zests and rigors1 and his later conscientious acceptance of the public duties laid upon any artist who happens also to be an organizer1 a 8man's man40 ,and whether one expects it or not1 one finds it in rich measure in ,saint-,gaudens4 ,this child of ,france1 born in ,ireland1 carries within him all the days of his life the light of an ,american conscience4 ,without a compelling moral earnestness1 he could never have brought to completion1 in face of unimaginable difficulties1 some of the masterpieces on which his fame rests4 ,every artist knows of the fourteen years during which the ,shaw monument remained in his studio1 never long absent from his thought4 ,many are familiar with the repeated trials through which his vision of ,general ,sherman and the ,angel of ,victory-,peace finally emerged triumphant4 ,a man once told his dentist of ,saint-,gaudens1 of the ,shaw monument1 of the fourteen years4 8,well10 said the dentist1 twirling his little mahogany stand of bright tools1 in complacent recollection of some of his own swifter victories1 8he couldn't have been a very smart artist1 to take all that time40 ,no1 indeed1 ,saint-,gaudens was not a very smart artist4 ,the very smart artist1 one concludes1 can flourish for his day without a deep foundation of moral earnestness4 ,saint-,gaudens was simply the very great artist4 ,with ,mr4 ,ward and ,mr4 ,french1 he made integrity and the artistic conscience the only natural choice for scores of young sculptors now influencing our lives4 ,what these three leaders have thus contributed of moral beauty1 of needed moral earnestness to our society1 will never be measured4 ,it is too far-reaching and too deep-seated4 ,most observers consider that a certain superficiality mars ,american life4 ,although we need not join those defeatists who believe that this defect in itself spells our ruin1 we shall certainly admit that the defect exists4 ,all honor1 then1 to the moral earnestness that today1 largely because of these three leaders1 is so much a part of the spirit of ,american sculpture4 ,the sculptor's work means far more than staying in a studio and luring visions into clay or stone or bronze4 ,his business isn't altogether a wrestling with angels4 ,there's a certain amount of coping with committees2 and his visions are often none the worse for the honest revisions that other men may suggest4 ,the sculptor's masterpiece must be able to resist the spiritual wear-and-tear of the marketplace of the world's opinion4 ,it is no masterpiece unless it can in the end do that4 ,and if1 as it stands1 the work is a silent influence against superficiality and emptiness1 something is gained for ,american life4 ,glad sculpture as well as grave sculpture can exert that influence4 ,,iv ,,john ,,quincy ,,adams ,,ward ,no one is as disdainful of the early ,victorians as the late ,victorians used to be4 ,in the strength of the 'eighties and 'nineties our studios often resounded with mutterings against the feebleness of the 'fifties4 ,perhaps some envy of certain primitive successes was mingled with this righteous wrath4 ,but after all1 our ,powerses and ,rogerses were not in the least the mere early worms their successors once said they were4 ,a juster perspective invites the reflection that ,american sculpture in its development needed the influence of the ,greek ,slave and her thousand daughters as it has needed that of the ,rock ,creek figure1 of the ,lincoln ,memorial1 and of the fire-new work beautifully presented by our youngest group of sculptors4 ,those marble shapes now dwelling vaguely somewhere in the dark corridors of relegation had once a thrilling part to play4 ,they were our ideals1 to be seen1 prized and possessed in the name of art4 ,so1 the old songs of blame have long been out of date4 ,but they did good service in the days when ,john ,quincy ,adams ,ward1 a natural leader of men1 turned a heroic back on ,europe as a place for the ,american artist to live in4 ,go there to study1 but not to stay1 was his word4 ,vision1 veracity1 virility are the three ,v's that stamped his life and work4 ,like his friend ,howells1 he was ,ohio-born2 both men had boyhood aspirations that carried them away from their ,middle-,border pioneer activities into the more genial milieu to be found among our ,eastern salt-water cities4 ,living from #ahcj to #aiaj1 and working sixty years in his art1 ,ward has rightly been called the ,colossus that bestrides the two separate worlds of our former and latter periods in sculpture4 ,though he founded no school1 his influence has been far-reaching4 ,his ,beecher statue1 flanked by its two lyrical groups1 his ,garfield monument with its attendant epic groups of ,war and ,peace1 his noble equestrian figure of ,general ,thomas are among a host of sterling works that prove him the 8all round0 sculptor4 ,in his youth1 he played a well-known and highly practical part in the making of ,brown's equestrian statue of ,washington1 one of the best-praised and worst-placed monuments in the city of ,new ,york4 ,since the praise is deserved1 the placing discredits us far more than it does the heroic artists who carried the work to completion4 ,all sculptors who succeed in their equestrian statues are heroic2 even if they are not heroes when they begin such enterprises they achieve heroism before they finish them4 ,and if that is true to-day1 with our more highly organized methods both of the sculptor's art and of the bronze-founder's science1 what must it have been in #ahef1 when ,brown's ,washington1 our second equestrian statue1 first saw the light8 ,in later life1 ,ward sometimes spoke in whimsical recollection of industrious apprentice days that he1 a luckier type of ,jonah1 spent within the belly of the horse cast in bronze by ,french workmen assisting ,brown4 ,ward had in his nature and in his art the great elements of the precursor4 ,he represents not only the pioneer in ,american sculpture1 but in no small measure and sometimes in a singular way1 the prophet4 ,witness the dog with scalloped mane in his admirable group of the ,indian ,hunter1 a work that much impressed the youthful ,saint-,gaudens1 fresh from years of study among ,european masters and masterpieces4 ,here we have a fore-taste of that delightful treatment of animal form found in the bronzes of the young men from the ,american ,academy in ,rome4 ,to be sure1 ,ward's dog does not seem to spring forward full-armed in a beautifully conventionalized linear panoply of bone and muscle resurrected from some newly revealed ,klazomenian sarcophagus2 he is not quite so ,cretanly curled as some of the appealing animal figures of to-day1 but 'tis enough1 't will serve4 ,and the whole group1 as seen happily placed in ,central ,park1 reveals the naturalism in which ,ward envelops his own peculiar kind of classicism4 ,for a nobler instance of ,ward's forward-looking quality1 choose the bronze ,washington standing on the steps of the ,sub-,treasury in ,new ,york1 in the very heart of all our heart-breaking yet inspiring financial traffic4 ,that statue is not merely a portrait of ,washington1 but a symbolic expression of early ,american greatness in leadership4 ,illustration3 ,,statue ,,of ,,washington ,,by ,,john ,,quincy ,,adams ,,ward ,a comparison between the ,ward ,washington and the ,houdon ,washington is permitted here2 ,houdon's position as a commanding figure among the sculptors of all time is too securely based on his incomparable busts and on his ,voltaire at the ,comdie-,franaise to be in the least disturbed by any of our observations4 ,remembering that ,ward's task was naturally less difficult than ,houdon's1 we shall do no injustice to our earliest foreign master in sculpture when we remark that ,ward's ,washington1 rather than ,houdon's1 bears away the palm for the larger monumental qualities of design4 ,the great ,frenchman's work is cumbered from the waist down with naturalistic emblems from field and forum4 ,neither ploughshare nor fasces nor cane nor sword nor cloak are omitted4 ,their insistence is of course redeemed in general by ,houdon's general mastery1 and in particular by his particular prowess in rendering the head2 it is ,houdon's glory that in some inexplicable way his hand makes every face it touches come alive4 ,ward's statue1 appearing almost a century later1 owes something to ,houdon2 every portrait statue of ,washington1 if worth much1 will owe something to ,houdon4 ,but what we would especially note is1 that in this virile presentment of ,washington1 ,ward has chosen the better part of both realism and classicism2 ,the work has something of the serenity of synthesis and elimination of detail that we love in the ,parthenon masterpieces1 yet it has enough of modern individualism and modern insistence upon expression and emotion to satisfy the longings of the everyday ,american spectator4 ,our reference to the super-symbolism in ,houdon's ,washington 7a flaw partly explained1 it may be1 by the inexorable demands of our forefathers as well as of practical marble-cutting7 leads us to the observation that to-day1 taken by and large1 ,french monumental art suffers enormously from emblematic excrescences4 ,what scales of justice and of mermaids1 what pinions of angels and eagles and doves1 what garlands and garters and gaiters1 what palettes and portfolios1 what seines and scrolls and ,t-squares have been gathered together in the ,french marketplaces as candidates for immortality6 ,and what complication of silhouette1 what lack of massing in light and shade1 have resulted thereby6 ,this paradox of the over-explained wrongs the clear ,french mind1 the intuitive ,french eye4 ,how is it in our own country8 ,but ,i studiously avoid breathing any word here of any lesson for our own sculptors4 ,it is enough to point out that a healthy1 if high-strung1 revolt against all this easy offhand grab-bag naturalistic symbolism will not only bring in its train the sculpture of serious protest2 it will also pick up on its fringes plenty of those tongue-in-cheek specimens of so-called sculpture familiar in our century4 ,from ,rodin's candle-lit and blanketed ,balzac of the previous generation down to the latest ,greenwich ,village absurdity1 in which human portraiture once more achieves its apotheosis on the surface of an egg1 such revolt is visible4 ,it is of course a revolt against many things besides an overdone symbolism2 but the symbolism may well serve as a symbol for the rest4 ,all honor then to the austerity of ,ward's ,washington4 ,as ,ward in his youth worked for an older man1 so he himself in his later years had the good fortune to meet the newer ideals in his art through collaboration with younger sculptors4 ,mr4 ,bartlett's sympathetic assistance is apparent in the ,stock ,exchange pediment1 and in the equestrian statue of ,general ,hancock1 for ,fairmount ,park4 ,this last was the work that engaged ,ward's thought to the very day of his death4 ,but nowhere shall we study ,ward better than in the statue of ,washington4 ,here we see this sculptor as he himself would wish to be seen2 a sculptor of mankind at its most heroic1 for mankind at its daily average4 8,our work10 he often said1 8must touch the ordinary human heart40 ,his rugged1 straightforward genius was not suited for revealing the more exquisite aspects of beauty1 the more whimsical secrets of the soul4 ,never fear2 later sculptors1 both men and women1 will fully attend to those things4 ,in the words of ,ward's historic observation to the ,farragut statue committee1 8,give the younger man the chance60 ,v ,,augustus ,,saint-,,gaudens ,born eighteen years after ,ward1 and dying while ,ward still had three years of strenuous work before him1 ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens lives in our annals as the most illustrious figure in ,american art4 ,both the ,old ,world and the ,new see it so4 ,brought to this country at the age of six months1 the ,dublin-born child of a ,french father and an ,irish mother1 he soon became more ,american than the ,americans themselves4 ,we see him first as the typical ,new ,york sidewalk boy1 learning not much in school1 but far more from eager contacts in the city boy's world of home1 parents1 streets1 policemen1 processions2 the atmosphere of the ,civil ,war stirs his young blood1 and will long afterward quicken his sculpture of our ,civil ,war heroes4 ,at fourteen he is by day a cameo-cutter's apprentice1 by night a rapt student of drawing at ,cooper ,institute4 ,at nineteen1 with a hundred dollars and his father's blessing1 he sails abroad for his first three years of foreign study and travel2 in ,paris and ,rome he learns and earns2 he has a stout heart1 a lean purse1 and an undying passion for his art4 ,his return to ,new ,york with a few small commissions picked up1 as the custom then was1 from ,american travellers sojourning in ,rome2 his second stay abroad2 his early struggles to obtain a footing2 his marriage and subsequent three years in ,paris while creating the ,farragut2 his ardent friendship with ,stanford ,white1 ,john ,la ,farge1 and other strong personalities of the day2--surely all this seems quite the usual story4 ,but ,saint-,gaudens had always his own innermost unusualness that somehow placed him above his fellows2 and the victorious completion of the ,farragut in #ahha was but the first of a long line of signal triumphs4 ,and even his almost forgotten triumphs 7for example1 the great improvement in our coinage initiated by his endeavor7 are signal triumphs4 ,there was no branch of his art in which he did not excel2 it was an art designed in general for the flowingness of bronze rather than for reproduction within the confines of the marble block4 ,illustration3 ,,statue ,,of ,,admiral ,,farragut ,,by ,,augustus ,,saint-,,gaudens ,too often versatility connotes a superficiality of mind1 an easily satisfied outlook4 ,not so with ,saint-,gaudens4 ,he was if anything over-critical of his work2 for instance1 he never forgot that the snare of the picturesque was in his path1 as it is in the path of every sculptor trying to infuse a genial human warmth into the sculptural order4 ,his knowledge in the lesser art of cameo-cutting1 a knowledge which in some sculptors would have been swept aside as detrimental to a spacious style1 helped rather than hindered him in his advance toward his ultimate mastery over relief of all kinds1--the coin1 the intimate portrait medallion1 the heroic monumental relief4 ,he may be truly said to have invented that charming form of bas-relief likeness shown in the portraits of the ,schiff children1 the ,butler children1 ,bastien-,lepage1 ,violet ,sargent1 and many others4 ,nothing quite like these works had ever before been produced1 either in the ,french medalists' fertile art of the nineteenth century or in that still richer period of the ,italian ,renaissance medal1 heralded by ,pisano4 ,and yet1 since little in the field of art is utterly original1 we are reminded here of that old saying about the power of the man meeting the power of the moment4 ,in beautiful angel-figures such as the ,amor-,caritas in high relief1 ,saint-,gaudens realized and expressed the spiritual meanings of other artists of his time1 both sculptors and painters2 this we see when we study ,french's noble ,angel of ,death1 and the ,burne-,jones figures on their golden stair4 ,critics are divided1 not as to the greatness of ,saint-,gaudens1 but as to the work which best stores up within itself the true elements of his greatness4 ,those who have seen tears start from the eyelids of gray veterans standing before the ,shaw ,memorial will perhaps say the ,shaw1 while those who perceive with delight all that the sculptor has attained in the ,sherman equestrian group1 with its thrilling harmony of spiritual and realistic presentation1 will perhaps say the ,sherman4 ,londoners and ,chicagoans will rest content in their great possession of the standing ,lincoln4 ,others again will find their truest vision of this artist's power in the enfolded mystery of the ,rock ,creek figure1 sometimes called ,nirvana1 but better named the ,peace of ,god4 ,and if 7as ,i think7 this is indeed his consummate1 his culminating work1 how strange that it is1 in a sense1 a somewhat unexpected1 uncharacteristic work6 ,in its profound other-worldliness1 it seems as withdrawn from the ,sherman and the ,puritan and the ,farragut as from those happy portrait-reliefs of living beings in their loveliness or strength4 ,how often artists have mused on the beauty of the head of this figure6 ,every trace of artistic knowingness is eliminated here2 nothing so vain and petty as any suggestion of accomplished technique intrudes4 ,the beholder's attention is directed solely toward whatever inner meaning he finds in those shadowed lineaments4 ,saint-,gaudens had the power of attracting to his service young men and women of true artistic ability4 ,mac,monnies1 ,flanagan1 ,fraser1 ,weinman1 ,martiny1 ,proctor1 ,hering1 ,miss ,grimes1 ,miss ,ward1--all of these have won distinction in their own personal work in sculpture2 some among them are now past masters4 ,but a higher power than that of winning the enthusiastic loyalty of youth belonged to ,saint-,gaudens4 ,he had also the gift of drawing from each worker something finer and more precious than anything that this worker had ever before possessed4 ,he compelled his assistants to build better than they knew4 ,it is part of this sculptor's glory that no one can ever mistake the subsequent work of his 8arrived0 pupils1 even the most famous of these1 for the work of ,saint-,gaudens4 ,in anonymous service to him1 they best perfected themselves as individual artists4 ,how ,i wish ,i might make myself clear when touching this vexed subject of apprenticeship6 ,the romantic part of the world dwelling far from the realities of studio life loves to picture a pathetic situation of gifted youth silently wasting its genius in saving the day for the commonplace performances of a middle-aged employer4 ,but this poetic view squares with cinema ideals rather than with the facts4 ,at a recent exhibition of weird works by the immature young sculptor ,x1 7such shows at times add to the gayety of ,new ,york7 ,i heard an ardent lady worshipper of something she called 8the new spirit of expressionism10 denounce the greed and vanity of the middle-aged sculptor ,y1 basely employing the bright unrecognized wings of ,x1 to give fire and movement to the pedestrian ,y inventions4 ,ah1 if that lady only knew the truth about ,x and ,y6 ,but it was closing-time1 and ,i made no attempt to tell her the truth2 it would have seemed rather gray and commonplace compared with her own glamorous moving-picturization of studio life4 ,all her thought was of heroism and oppression1 not of work and wages4 ,yet ,i might at least have given her this one helpful fact2 that almost without exception1 the successful sculptors of to-day look back with gratitude toward the multitudinous activities of their young apprenticeships2 sometimes they even feel a secret amazement that their former masters should have put up with them so long4 ,,vi ,,daniel ,,chester ,,french ,last summer1 revisiting ,concord after many years1 ,i crossed 8the rude bridge that arched the flood10 and found ,mr4 ,french's ,minute ,man1 embattled still1 though embowered in quietness1 and made safe from the ruder motor traffic of the day4 ,it seemed incredible that a youth of twenty-three1 with no models except the ,apollo ,belvidere and himself1 and with no instruction beyond that derived from a month in ,ward's studio and from ,dr4 ,rimmer's anatomy lectures1 could have produced a statue so competent and so sculptural as this4 ,then ,i remembered that in #aiai the most proudly acclaimed work of ,american art for the year was ,mr4 ,french's marble figure of ,memory2 and it was interesting to note that the ,minute ,man1 however immediately convincing in general appeal1 appeared in a sense as the work of an artist older than the sculptor of the ,memory4 ,for the ,minute ,man has here and there a lean gravity of modeling that we rightly or wrongly associate with passing maturity1 while the forms of the ,memory are rich and commanding1 yet enveloped with that serenity for which we have no better word than classic4 ,and what is the true meaning of classic1 except as it describes that which is fresh and vivid to-day1 yet has the underlying force of permanence1 the very tide of immortality flowing in its veins8 ,many of our artists acquire the classic spirit1 many have it thrust upon them1 some reject it utterly4 ,but ,mr4 ,french is the classic spirit personified among us2 born so1 not made so2 and what he creates is illumined by his understanding of the dignity of the human soul1 and by his belief that beauty and truth are acceptable to the human mind4 ,this gracious seated figure of ,memory1 gazing calmly into the glass that reflects1 not her own person but the shapes of the past1 is admirably composed from every point of view and within the natural limits of the marble4 ,a critic has written of it as 8showing at its best ,mr4 ,french's idealism1 and being at the same time a masterly study of the nude1 true to the nobler forms of nature1 yet with a skillful avoidance of what is commonly known as realism40 ,that phrase 8true to the nobler forms of nature0 well describes this sculptor's great ideal figures4 ,mr4 ,french is to-day the dean of ,american sculpture1 the honorary ,president of the ,national ,sculpture ,society2 a presence with all the gracious authority conferred by deanship1 and with nothing whatever of the dry ancientry at times associated with that honor4 ,there is something of the unexpected in the course of every great artist4 ,with ,ward it is one thing1 with ,saint-,gaudens another4 ,with ,daniel ,chester ,french1 born in ,exeter1 ,new ,hampshire1 in #ahej1 the unexpected thing is that in his art education he seems somehow to have skipped the slow ,preamble and the voluminous ,whereas1 and to have reached almost at a bound the precincts of the ,resolved4 ,concord has never lacked favorite sons1 and young ,daniel among the lions of that town of his later boyhood felt only their appreciation and encouragement4 ,but with one year in ,florence1 spent largely under the genial influence of ,thomas ,ball1 sculptor of the first equestrian monument placed in ,new ,england1 his so-called study-period ends4 ,a pediment for the ,st4 ,louis ,custom ,house awaits him in #ahgg2 within the next few years he executes similar architectural sculpture for ,philadelphia and ,boston4 ,in #ahgi he models from life his beautiful portrait bust of ,emerson4 ,illustration3 ,,memory ,,by ,,daniel ,,chester ,,french ,surely we cannot say that his art education was finished before these things were attempted4 ,it progressed with them1 and with those other creations1 more idealistic in type1 in which his imagination had fuller play4 ,when in #ahhh he went to ,paris to make the model for his marble statue of ,general ,cass of ,michigan1 he went as a master1 yet as a seeker2 one well prepared to gain without groping all that was worth while in the influence of the time and place4 ,five years later1 at the ,columbian ,exposition1 his genius makes an extraordinary appeal to his fellow-countrymen in two imposing works1 the ,republic and the consoling ,angel of ,death4 ,these of course differ widely in their inspiration and in the emotion they arouse1 but they are equally eloquent4 ,the ,gallaudet group1 placed in ,washington in #ahhi1 had already spoken its message to the human heart4 ,an inner radiance of the spirit shines from that very solidly and beautifully composed group of the great teacher and the little deaf-mute2 nowhere else in sculpture have we found so adequate and touching an expression of the fatherliness that should animate those who teach1 and of the trust of those who must needs learn or be lost4 ,who would have guessed that sculpture could have found out this way of saying ,faith1 ,hope1 and ,charity8 ,and beneath all that captivates the general public1 how much there is in the ,angel1 the ,republic1 and the ,gallaudet that remains of special interest to artists1 because of the individual mastery of a special problem6 ,in collaboration with ,mr4 ,potter1 the accomplished master of animal sculpture1 ,mr4 ,french has created some of our most notable equestrian statues2 the ,general ,grant and the ,general ,meade for ,philadelphia1 the ,general ,washington1 presented to ,france by an association of ,american women1 the ,general ,hooker for ,boston4 ,other works of high import are the majestic ,alma ,mater at ,columbia ,university1 the bronze doors in delicately shadowed relief for the ,boston ,public ,library1 the colossal seated bronze figure of ,lincoln enshrined within the ,lincoln ,memorial at ,washington4 ,once again let it be said1 a man's work shows his mind4 ,what ,mr4 ,french's art has given to our country is something greatly needed here to-day1 that quality which for lack of a better name we call urbanity4 ,there ought to be a higher word for this gift1 but ,matthew ,arnold had to put up with the term1 and so must ,i4 ,the harried dweller in our ,american urbs is often far from urbane1 more's the pity4 ,but the urbanity we need now1 in our arts1 our letters1 our life1 is something that goes deeper than courtesy2 it is something that is allied to the spirit of ,amor-,caritas seen not only in the ,saint-,gaudens angel of that name1 but also in ,mr4 ,french's ,alma ,mater1 and in his ,angel of ,death4 ,even in the gesture of the ,republic's arms1 and in the very folds of her garments1 there is a reminder of that large charitable humanist urbanity all nations need when trying to know themselves and each other4 ,mr4 ,french is the humanist among our ,american sculptors4 ,but he is empathically not of that type of humanist darkly described by ,professor ,kallen as living 8beside life1 not in it40 ,his position among our sculptors is more than honorary2 it is that of the generous co-worker and helper1 especially sympathetic toward youth and its aspirations4 ,what ,mr4 ,french does seems effortless1 but beneath that apparent ease is a profound knowledge of all the armature1 both mechanical and intellectual1 that holds the sculptor's art in true poise and balance4 ,work from his hands may be the monumental or the exquisite2 it is imagined simply and naturally1 as if this artist knew no other way than the beautiful way4 ,how deeply our democracy needs the best he has to give6 ,,vii ,our twentieth century admits that the latter years of the nineteenth century were spacious years in our sculpture1 and that there are as yet no leaders who overtop these three4 ,with these will always be associated1 in the minds of those who know things as they are1 that distinguished artist ,olin ,warner1 whose death cut short a career splendidly ready for its zenith4 ,for some unknown reason1 his work has missed something of its due praise among us2 time will perhaps readjust this4 ,the delightful caryatids of his fountain at ,portland1 ,oregon1 are indeed greatly prized2 his portrait statues are truly sculptural in their ensemble1 and fine in their characterization2 and with the passing of years1 his spirited yet beautifully classic portrait busts of ,alden ,weir1 of ,cottier1 and of ,maud ,morgan gain rather than lose in the esteem of the student4 ,a much later leader1 also lost before winning the heights to which he aspired1 was ,karl ,bitter1 that sensitive1 swift-minded1 deft-handed sculptor whose ardent intellectual curiosity kept him still the seeker for newer and more vital ways of sculptural expression4 ,his tragic death was not unlike ,warner's2 ,warner was thrown from his bicycle in ,central ,park1 ,bitter was struck down by an automobile in front of the ,opera ,house4 ,both men were of those tres d' lite that ,art needs as her interpreters4 ,but what a contrast in their lives1 their characters1 their sculptural interpretations6 ,warner was of the highest type of ,new ,englander of ,puritan descent1 a courageous worshipper of beauty1 and at his best in revealing beauty in classic guise2 he has been called the ,pilgrim homesick for ,hellas2 ,bitter was of the highest type of the foreign-born1 a ,viennese eagerly assuming the duties of ,american citizenship4 ,a gallant figure1 already before his coming among us he was imbued with various ,old ,world ideals in art1 many of which he afterward rejected as flamboyant1 frivolous4 ,no sculptor of our time has made a swifter and steadier advance in sculptural power throughout a busy and varied career4 ,warner and ,bitter2 the deep-minded and the quick-minded2 the spirit of ,american sculpture needed both these men1 and felt their loss4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,of ,,expositions ,,and ,,collaborations ,i ,an unpublished satiric drawing of the 'eighties shows a family of ,american tourists in the ,louvre4 ,they contemplate the ,melian ,venus4 ,with one exception1 they are dumb with awe4 ,the exception is ,aunt ,maria1 the masterful old lady in the foreground4 ,aunt ,maria has seen men and cities1 but she doesn't know as there's much that can beat ,south ,bend4 ,so 8,aunt ,maria gazes with distrust ,upon the goddess in her bloom perennial4 #8,talk about art1--you should have seen the bust1 ,the butter bust we had at our ,centennial4'0 ,the ,sleeping ,iolanthe in butter6 ,in #ahgf1 her name melted in the ,american mouth4 ,though barred from the ,fine ,arts section1 she was believed by many to express the spirit of ,american art4 ,shamed by her popularity1 certain sensitive ,american artists did not quite recover a jubilant tone until1 long years afterward1 a full-sized ,melian ,venus in chocolate contributed to the gayety of the greatest of ,french expositions4 ,after that1 the butter bust incident weighed less heavily on thoughtful minds4 ,just before our ,centennial exposition1 the scholarly ,john ,fiske1 admitting that 8the classical picture and the undraped statue0 have 8a high place in our esteem10 ruefully adds that 8it will probably be some time before genuine art ceases to be an exotic among us1 and becomes a plant of unhindered native growth40 ,the ,centennial showed us the truth of just that4 ,the ,centennial was a glory1 and a profound disturbance4 ,to our sculpture1 this disturbance was its great gain4 ,for the first time1 the ,american sculptor saw his work side by side with that of ,europeans4 ,he was dismayed4 ,he had had his doubts1 his forebodings4 ,he now perceived for a certainty that in spite of half a century spent in the pursuit of all the best that ,italian pseudo-classicism could offer1 our apprentice days in sculpture1 far from being well over1 were scarcely begun4 ,perhaps a fresh start was needed4 ,at a time when ,munich1 as well as ,paris1 was calling to the young painter1 ,paris1 rather than ,rome or ,florence1 beckoned to the sculptor4 ,new forces were abroad in art1 and ,american sculpture of the next generation profited eagerly from the vigorous new ,french school4 ,,ii ,the lesson taught by the ,columbian exposition of #ahic was just as important as that learned from the ,centennial1 though far less sobering4 ,a holiday spirit1 not without dignity1 spoke from those pleasure-domes and lagoons and abounding sculptural forms of the ,white ,city4 ,the progress made by our art during seventeen years packed with artistic adventure and endeavor was blown abroad in triumph4 ,on the whole1 we were justified in our joy4 ,as the ,centennial by its dismaying jolt had enlarged the outlook of our artists1 so the ,columbian1 by its varied harmonies1 liberated the imagination of the public1 of the art-lover4 ,to a marked extent1 it created anew the art-lover1 a personage already made possible by the prosperity following the conclusion of the ,civil ,war4 ,in the ,world's ,fair of #ahic1 the apparently inexhaustible advantages of a sympathetic collaboration between architect1 painter1 sculptor1 and landscape architect were for the first time sketched out large for the ,american vision4 ,our many succeeding expositions have of course emphasized and amplified the suggestions so gallantly given and so eagerly noted in #ahic4 ,not that our whole broad land is to-day the dwelling-place of beauty4 ,far from it4 ,great reaches of time and great strivings of the spirit must match our great stretches of space before art is everywhere at home here4 ,and collaboration at its best is jointly and severally a striving of the spirit4 ,in #ahbe1 when ,charles ,bulfinch1 then architect of the ,capitol1 receives an inquiry 8respecting the ornaments wanted for the pediment of the ,capitol10 and writes in answer that 8the object of advertising was to obtain designs in various styles1 from which to select one10 an ardent collaboration between sculptor and architect was clearly not the order of the day4 ,the hard fate of ,greenough's ,olympian ,washington1 dragged in #ahdc from inner shrine to outdoor platform1 shows that in almost twenty years conditions had not changed4 ,for a long time after that1 a work of sculpture was seldom considered1 during its creation1 with special reference to its destined surroundings4 ,artist and public satisfied themselves with the bland half-truth that a good thing looks well anywhere4 ,there were of course vague gestures of collaboration when the first statues were placed in ,central ,park2 and in the good fellowship existing between students of the different arts in the few schools we had here as well as in the foreign schools there was a basis for later harmonious co-operation4 ,but the ,saint-,gaudens ,farragut1 unveiled in #ahha1 and showing in detail and ensemble the results of an extraordinarily happy and sympathetic collaboration1 roused the minds of all artists4 ,and twelve years afterward1 the intelligent public was fully ready to appreciate the happy collaborations it saw on every hand at the ,fair4 ,,iii ,expositions bring in their train certain evils4 ,is superficiality one of these8 ,in theory1 sculptural work for exposition buildings and approaches and vistas must often stress too much the gala-day aspect of life2 it must sound the hurrah at any cost2 the note is gayety and triumph2 let no other chord intrude4 ,so much for theory4 ,as a matter of fact1 the making of red-letter-day sculpture injures only those sculptors who are already too much enamoured of the 8faade and froth0 side of human achievement4 ,nothing could be more serious in matter or in manner than was ,mr4 ,french's stately ,republic1 a dominant note of the plan of the ,columbian ,exposition4 ,and no work was more thoroughly appreciated4 ,some of the very gayest of our exposition sculptures owe their vitality to the very serious studies and the very solid mastery of the artists who have produced them4 ,there was wide-spread regret because the ,mac,monnies ,fountain1 that thing of joy for the exposition of #ahic1 could not sprinkle its dews permanently for our refreshment4 ,and in our later expositions1 there have always been temporary works achieved with bravura by the artist1 enjoyed without reservation by the public1 and 7often with a real sadness of farewell7 consigned to oblivion by the powers4 ,the story of the ,fair of #ahic1 the exemplar1 one might say1 for subsequent celebrations1 has been exceedingly well told by ,mr4 ,charles ,moore1 in his recently published ,life of ,daniel ,burnham4 ,nowhere else will one find so true and inspiring a picture of our ,american architects1 painters1 sculptors1 and landscape gardeners working together in exalted collaboration4 ,those men set a great standard and a great stride for artists of the present century4 ,to quote from ,mr4 ,moore's book a paragraph concerning the sculptors3 8,marshalled by ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens1 the sculptors for the first time in ,america took their rightful place in co-operation with the architects4 ,and what a troop they were4 ,there was ,daniel ,french1 embodying the spirit of permanence and clear-sightedness in the serene figure of the ,republic that graciously presided over the ,court of ,honor2 and again1 in conjunction with ,edward ,potter1 manifesting sustained ability in the quadriga surmounting the ,peristyle2 ,frederick ,mac,monnies1 giving vent to the exuberance of ,america in the joyous fountain that lent gayety to the great central motive of the ,fair2 ,olin ,warner1 whose early death lost to the country an artist on the way to the heights2 ,paul ,bartlett1 then a promise which opportunity has fulfilled2 ,edwin ,kemeys1 with his animal sculpture that came to attract all the money ,theodore ,roosevelt could spare for art2 and ,louis ,saint-,gaudens1 wanting only the intellectual element to put him in the same class with his brother2 and ,karl ,bitter1 capable and conscientious1 whose accidental death brought grief to a host of admirers2 and ,lorado ,taft1 who has put the ethereal1 haunting spirit of the ,great ,lakes into his ,chicago fountain2 ,larkin ,mead1 sculptor of the old school2 ,phimister ,proctor1 lover of ,american animals2 besides ,bela ,pratt1 ,rohl-,smith1 ,bush-,brown1 ,rideout1 ,boyle1 ,waagen1 ,bauer1 ,martiny1 ,blenkenship1 and the satisfactory ,partridge40 ,later ,fairs have but exemplified what was well suggested by the ,white ,city4 ,the ,exposition at ,san ,francisco1 most recent of all1 and taking place in bright evanescence while ,europe was already in the bitter throes of the ,world ,war1 brought forward1 under the vigorous direction of ,mr4 ,calder1 sculptor of the ,pioneer ,mother and of the ,triumph of ,energy1 much that was stimulating and fresh in our sculpture1 even though none of these ,american exhibits labelled themselves as ,dynamic ,decompositions1 and few attempted the earnest sort of modernism found in ,french works such as ,bernard's ,maiden with ,water ,jar4 ,the fountain in particular was delightfully renewed in ,mr4 ,aitken's ,fountain of the ,earth1 ,mrs4 ,burroughs's ,fountain of ,youth1 ,mr4 ,taft's ,fragment from the ,fountain of ,time1 ,mrs4 ,whitney's ,fountain with ,pristine ,motives from ,aztec ,civilization1 ,mr4 ,putnam's ,fountain with ,mermaids1 and ,miss ,longman's ,fountain of ,ceres4 ,individual pieces such as ,william ,sergeant ,kendall's half-length portrait of a peasant girl1 carved in wood and realistically colored1 attracted attention for successful originality4 ,,iv ,by and large1 our expositions have done three good things for sculpture4 ,they have managed to dislodge1 even from the most painstaking of workers1 a fearless immediacy of expression in their art4 ,they have introduced to the public1 in a large way on the terrace and in an intimate way within the gallery1 the most interesting sculptors of the time4 ,above all1 they have fostered and amazingly developed the give-and-take of collaboration in the arts4 ,this last is their best gift to the spirit of ,american sculpture2 it is the gift of the broader mind4 ,our ,american ,academy in ,rome1 with its stirring legend1 8,not merely fellowships1 but fellowship10 is the direct outcome of the ,world's ,fair of #ahic4 ,burnham1 ,mc,kim1 ,mead1 ,la ,farge1 ,millet1 ,saint-,gaudens1 and other artists who by collaboration made that ,fair a thing of beauty resolved then and there that younger men should have such advantages as these that they themselves had gained by working together4 ,through their efforts1 the project took shape4 ,though a ,national institution1 our ,american ,academy in ,rome is endowed and maintained by private citizens4 ,its beneficiaries are young sculptors1 painters1 architects1 classical scholars1 landscape architects1 and musicians who have already shown themselves signally fitted for their chosen work1 and who1 for the sake of our country's art1 ought to have the benefit of the three years of intensive and inter-related study in ,rome4 ,to-day1 our ,academy in ,rome is regarded as the most important modern influence in ,american sculpture4 8,my reason for thinking it admirable10 writes ,saint-,gaudens1 8is my belief that the strenuous competition required to gain access to the ,villa ,medici1 as well as the three years of study in that wonderful spot1 tend to a more earnest and thorough training than could elsewhere be gained under the present conditions of life in our times40 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,statue ,,and ,,the ,,bust ,,and ,,the ,,ideal ,,figure ,i ,as originally planned1 the title of the following chapter was ,the ,statue and the ,bust1 and the ,wart ,well ,lost4 ,for ,i have often felt 7and who has not87 that the ,cromwellian forthrighteousness in the matter of that wart has been over-estimated4 ,however1 on second thought1 it would seem wiser to suggest the possibility of occasional ideal presentation rather than to decry the virtues of exact realism in commemorative portraiture4 ,hence the more dignified heading seen above4 ,and how does that old case of idealism vs4 realism stand at present in the field of the portrait statue8 ,before answering this question1 let us consider for a moment the modern sculptor's preparation for his life-work4 ,following hard upon the three leaders who remain central figures in our hundred years of sculpture came the outriders of that large and ever increasing group whose creative genius1 fostered by the training enthusiastically received in the ,french school1 now stands four-square among us4 ,the men and women of this group are the present-day nucleus of sculptural activity here4 ,most of them keep a firm footing in two centuries2 they still profit by the light of the later nineteenth century ,french masters1 and they themselves pass on their own clear new light to twentieth century learners4 ,when the names of ,falguire and ,merci1 ,dubois and ,chapu1 ,saint-,marceaux and ,frmiet and ,rodin are spoken1 these men and women are thrilled1 just as ,heine's ,grenadier was thrilled by an imagined footstep2 and these men and women know why ,schumann's song soars up into the ,marseillaise4 ,they know that their ,french masters once gave them something priceless1 yet left them free to use the gift according to their own bent and will4 ,the principles taught in the atelier seemed to them necessary and suggestive1 not despotic4 ,to-day1 both the ,new ,world and the ,old are altered4 ,good art schools are now found in most of our large cities2 as far as mere technical training is concerned1 opportunities for art-study are at present brighter here than in ,europe4 ,but nothing can ever replace the inspiration given by the sight of ,european masterpieces of painting1 sculpture1 and architecture on ,european soil4 ,therefore we no longer say with ,ward1 8,go abroad to study1 but not to stay40 ,we say instead1 8,remain at home for your study1 but go abroad during vacation periods for travel and for inspiration40 ,a generation ago1 the eager young student body of returning painters and sculptors would not have believed that this change of base in an artist's education could occur within their lifetime4 ,until rather lately1 the youthful sculptor returning to ,america to practise his profession would hope first of all to make a portrait bust or two1 eking out his income by teaching classes in modeling1 or by assisting some more experienced sculptor in developing important commissions4 ,then if he were lucky1 a fountain figure for some one's garden or a portrait statue for his native town would loom up on his horizon1 and he would be fairly started on his way to glory4 ,,ii ,the portrait statue2 imperishable bronze trousers2 the frock-coat immortalized4 ,art thou there1 truepenny8 ,most of those persons who are now confirmed haters of sculpture probably became so through having in tender childhood looked too long on the bronze portrait statue when it was dark1 when it gave its color all wrong to the countenance of some beloved hero4 ,even among sculptors there are many who admit a secret distaste for the portrait statue1 except when it proceeds from the art of the rare absolute master4 ,hearing the grumblings of sculptors as to the difficulties of this form1 one is tempted to ask with ,mr4 ,caudle1 8,if painful1 why so often do it80 ,the answer is1 8,the portrait statue is what committees want1 and will pay for4 ,the portrait statue is my children's bread2 the ideal figure will not keep them in shoes40 ,so then1 the situation must be examined on all sides4 ,and is there not a certain high courage in that sculptor who takes his age as it is1 and1 like ,saint-,gaudens and ,ward1 manfully makes the truthful best out of ,peter ,cooper's whiskers1 and ,horace ,greeley's long-legged boots8 8,but10 retorts the sculptor1 8the whiskers we can endure and celebrate2 the boots are not too much to bear4 ,these things are not decorative1 but they have character1 they tell their times4 ,it is the frock-coat and the trousers that paralyze our imagination40 ,perhaps it will never be known how much the modern male costume1 convenient indeed1 but uncomely1--tyrannously uniform in its formlessness1 and rejecting any individuality as an indecency1--has contributed to the rather wide indifference of the public toward the usual dark effigy of estimable manhood set up in the marketplace4 ,well1 no conflict1 no drama6 ,if there were no inherent difficulties in the problem of the portrait statue1 there would be no exultation for the sculptor in his successful solution4 ,true1 our days lack beauty2 man's apparel is not a sculptural delight4 ,but unless the artist can do something to mend matters1 there is little use in mournfully reminding the world that there was no ,wragg by the ,ilissus4 ,it is interesting to mark how our ,american sculptors have come out from their clash with the commonplace1 and whether they emerge as victors or vanquished4 ,,iii ,looking at the general assembly of portrait statues here1 we see at once that these works are freer and happier when their subjects1 to alter ,washington's historic words1 permit 8some little deviation in disfavor of modern costume40 ,mr4 ,quinn1 in his statue of ,edwin ,booth1 and ,mr4 ,weinman1 in his spirited ,macomb1 have profited sculpturally by such permissions4 ,most of the bronze statues in the ,rotunda of the ,library of ,congress have an added chance at immortality because personages like ,solon in his himation and the ,droeshout ,shakespeare in his doublet and hose1 ,michelangelo with his angry leather apron and ,columbus with his sea-coat and world-map1 and ,joseph ,henry in his gown are freed from the tyranny of modern tailoring4 ,they evade the question2 they have every opportunity to look as good as they are4 ,but the statue of a plain blunt modern man rarely looks as good as it is2 clothes bewray it2 and so we shall find all our modern artists using one subterfuge or another to relieve the bleak dulness of modern manly dress seen at full length in the round4 ,illustration3 ,,statue ,,of ,,maj4 ,,gen4 ,,macomb ,,by ,,adolph ,a4 ,,weinman ,saint-,gaudens seats his ,peter ,cooper king-like within a ,renaissance portico1 and places a curule chair behind his standing ,lincoln4 ,though ,lincoln is a greatly revered subject in ,american sculpture1--a subject of exceedingly rugged force1--few sculptors are satisfied to present ,lincoln1 plain in his usual garb2 they give the hero a background1 or a cloak1 or an exedra1 or a top hat on a bench1 so keenly do they feel the lack of amplifying circumstances4 ,yet certainly ,lincoln's bronze clothing offers more of interest than that of today's captains of destiny1 soldiers excepted4 ,and how distinctively ,american is the note sounded in all our portrait statues of ,lincoln6 ,saint-,gaudens1 ,french1 ,mac,neil1 ,weinman1 ,barnard1 ,borglum1 and ,o',connor have made some of the best of these4 ,one sees that a good statue of ,lincoln must be 8distinctively ,american02 let all 8viewers with alarm0 be comforted by observing that ,frenchification or ,italianization slips away from a ,lincoln statue like water from a duck's back4 ,,iv ,the major heroes of sculpture may well receive the tribute of shrine or exedra or canopy1 but what of the more numerous lesser heroes8 ,in avoiding a commonplace rendering1 the imaginative sculptor has other avenues of escape beside those offered by the architect1 sometimes gloomily called by unbelievers in collaboration the sculptor's evil genius4 ,a first aid is the impressionist manner1 used by ,o',connor in his ,worcester ,soldier1 and in his masterly statue of ,general ,lawton at ,indianapolis4 ,in these works the modeling is fluid1 the planes vibrate in light2 we feel the happy absence of a sample-card arrangement of buttons2 no one could for a moment say1 ,here are two more triumphs of bronze tailoring4 ,already in some of our new ,war memorials1 our sculptors are making use1 but not always the best use1 of broad simplifications of mass and surface4 ,they are showing us young heroes of the ,argonne not cap-a-pie in their uniforms1 7no one asks that7 but with torn tunics1 if any1 and with riven flesh4 ,rodin and the grand old ,bourgeois de ,calais are indirectly responsible for some of these compositions4 ,but will these bronze pictures of human agony long satisfy the human heart8 ,have such memorials the permanence of spirit we implore1 or are they big bronze studies that are really almost as far from the heroic greatness of the ,bourgeois de ,calais as from the unpretending littleness of a ,rogers group1 say the ,wounded ,scout in the ,swamp8 ,the answer depends entirely upon the artist4 ,we have no right to dictate his manner1 but we demand that beneath the manner there shall be sound construction as well as feeling3 we ask also a knowledge of ensemble1 of silhouette4 ,the impressionist style is a fine instrument in the right hands4 ,but in the hands of mediocrity1 this style of sculptural language performs the third and most regrettable function of all language1 that of concealing the lack of thought4 ,the result is what ,mr4 ,grafly might well call 8union-suit sculpture40 ,between the ,devil of a prosaic literalness of rendering1 and the deep sea of a sloppy and would-be poetical impressionism1 the genius of the sculptor is our only salvation4 ,impressionism ill-handled will not save from the commonplace either a group or a figure4 ,while the problem of the portrait statue remains as difficult as it now is1 one is glad to see that of late committees are turning toward other ways of perpetuating the memory of greatness4 ,here in ,new ,york1 the ,pulitzer ,memorial in the ,plaza has taken the form of a fountain1 surmounted by a figure of ,abundance1 the last work from the hands of ,karl ,bitter2 and the ,straus ,memorial is a fountain1 in which the chief motive is a reclining figure of ,contemplation1 at the head of a large pool4 ,other cities also have their successful memorial avoidances of the 8iron photograph10 as the darkened bronze effigy has been called4 ,a distinguished example is ,daniel ,french's ,du ,pont fountain in ,washington1 made to replace a portrait statue4 ,mrs4 ,whitney's ,titanic ,memorial1 a memorial for many rather than for one1 is admirable in its sincere originality of inspiration4 ,at least one thing could be done which is now left undone by most of the ,city ,fathers in our land4 ,under the direction of ,municipal ,art ,commissions1 bronze statues could be cleaned2 not polished until they are a glittering congeries of high lights1 an effect heartily detested by sculptors1 but cleaned reasonably1 with a decent regard for the opinions of those who made them4 ,is it not a singular superstition that a statue once placed should never be touched by the hand of cleanliness1 but should suffer in silence whatever indignities the soot and the birds and the climate heap upon it8 ,again1 in a country in which gold is said to be no rare possession1 this metal1 properly toned1 could often without prohibitive expense be used to dignify our statues1 and prevent dark oxidization4 ,and this would be done1 if we of today cared as much about art as we do1 let us say1 about advertising4 ,future civilization will probably have a place for a new profession1 that of the well-trained custodian of statues4 ,the first attempts in this work will not in the nature of things be as destructive as were the labors of the old-time picture-restorer1 so-called1 a personage long reviled for his ignorant or dishonest acts1 but now becoming extinct4 ,and what a boon it would be if this statue-custodian of the future1 with a body of intelligent criticism behind him1 could be depended upon for judicious removals as well as for faithful guardianship6 ,this liberating thought is brought to the attention of all ,municipal ,art ,commissions4 ,v ,among appealing portraits in the ,louvre is ,ghirlandaio's ,priest and ,boy4 ,whatever might be hideous in its realism is at once atoned for by something singularly lovely4 ,the priest has the ugliest nose in the world2 ,cyrano is a ,hermes to him2 but the child looks up to him in intimate childlike trust4 ,the most unflinching realism and the tenderest idealism meet in that portrait4 ,and our ,american portraits in sculpture1 taken one by one1 run that gamut4 ,from the day of ,william ,rush's rude self-portrait down to the present hour of an occasional polychrome marble bust of exquisite workmanship1 our sculpture has advanced in the art of the portrait bust4 ,the creator of the ,greek ,slave was happier1 whether he knew it or not1 in rugged masculine portrait heads such as his ,jackson and his ,calhoun1 than in his famed ideal figures2 those male likenesses have a living quality that is lacking in his series of idealized busts of classic heroines such as ,proserpine and ,psyche1 all much the same in feature1 and all appropriately corseted in a kind of marble corolla1 springing up from a leafy marble base4 ,the ending of a bust1 that is to say its base or support1 is always a question with the sculptor1 unless1 like ,houdon1 he chooses one type of base for all1 or unless1 as ,rodin in his marble portraits of women1 he counts upon the richly associative charm of the unachieved4 ,since the time of ,verocchio's bust of a woman with flowers in her hands1 many sculptors1 for the sake of added interest1 a more vivid characterization1 or a more striking composition1 have attempted to show the hands as well as the face of the person portrayed4 ,in this difficult undertaking1 no modern sculptor has succeeded better than ,mr4 ,niehaus1 well-known for his imposing monuments4 ,his portrait bust of ,john ,quincy ,adams ,ward is not only a work of distinguished realism1 worthy of the artist it represents2 it is also a perfect solution of an almost insolvable problem in arrangement4 ,illustration3 ,,portrait ,,bust ,,of ,j4 ,q4 ,a4 ,,ward ,,by ,,charles ,h4 ,,niehaus ,among the greatest virile portraits of our age are those of the 8all around0 ,american sculptor1 ,charles ,grafly2 for style and workmanship and seizing of character any half-dozen of his busts would proudly hold their own if placed beside ,rodin's male portraits in the ,metropolitan ,museum4 ,furthermore1 they have the old-fashioned advantage of looking like the persons they represent1 an advantage not always attained in the ,rodin portrayals4 ,perhaps a fairer tribute to ,mr4 ,grafly's power would be to say that his busts need not fear comparison with the ,saint-,gaudens ,sherman1 that most spirited portrait of a war-chief4 ,one of our memorable sculptured portraits is ,mrs4 ,burroughs's bust of ,john ,la ,farge1 modeled at about the period of ,mr4 ,lockwood's painted portrait4 ,both artists have attained truth4 ,mr4 ,lockwood's broadly enveloping technique shows ,la ,farge as the cosmopolitan1 the artist who is also the gracious citizen of the world2 ,mrs4 ,burroughs's point of view emphasizes ,la ,farge the individualist1 the thinker habitually pursuing his own spiritual adventures in many realms1 oriental and occidental4 ,the painting tells wherein ,la ,farge resembles his fellow-men1 while the sculpture with equal force brings out his valuable points of difference4 ,twenty years ago1 ,jonathan ,scott ,hartley's sturdy renderings of masculine character delighted his colleagues2 and even today1 his bust of ,john ,gilbert as ,sir ,peter ,teazle loses nothing of its rich whimsical earnestness when considered beside modern work of the highest order1 such as ,robert ,aitken's portrait of ,augustus ,thomas1 or one of ,fraser's presentments of our great ,american citizens4 ,naturally remote in intent and result from these virile modelings are the lovingly rendered portraits of women and children familiar in our sculpture4 ,a well-known example is ,manship's realistically carved marble image of his baby daughter placed within a captivating shrine of blue and gold4 ,portraits in the round1 carried out in a polychrome ensemble of beautifully cut marble combined with other materials1 such as wood1 gold1 and semi-precious stones1 offer a fascinating field for the ,american sculptor willing to devote to such experiments the time and thought they demand4 ,the pure white marble bust looks ill at ease in the warm precincts of the modern home2 it is a thing of the past4 ,we can but wonder that our elders bore it so long1 even when it was in a measure suppressed by placing it looking streetward1 between the parted lace curtains4 ,illustration3 ,,marble ,,portrait ,,of ,,baby ,,by ,,paul ,,manship ,for the male portrait1 modern taste generally prefers bronze to marble2 and just as the dead whiteness of marble may be relieved by color1 so the severe darkness of bronze in statue or bust may be altered by the use of a harmonious patina4 ,many of our sculptors have given long and patient study to this subject of 8patine02 others again trust all to the bronze founder4 ,but sculpture still has much to learn from chemistry2 and there are still a few artists who keep enough of the weaker side of craftsmanship to believe in the advisability of secret processes4 ,is it not true that art is the last field where such secrecies should exist8 ,do we not look upon art as the liberator of great things1 not as the locker-up of little things like craftsmen's receipts8 ,for receipts that are not exposed to the air get mouldy with hugger-mugger and abracadabra2 this is as true today as in good ,cennino ,cennini's time of 8mordant with garlic10 and 8tempera with the yolk of the egg of a city hen40 ,,vi ,a survey of the spirit of ,american sculpture should include1 as a cause for joy1 a glimpse at the single ideal figures in which many of our modern sculptors express themselves1 more or less untrammeled by the demands of the world4 ,the subjects for such figures are rarely new1 yet they must be treated with perennial freshness4 ,take ,diana3 ,saint-,gaudens1 ,warner1 ,mac,monnies1 ,miss ,scudder1 ,mc,cartan and ,i know not how many others have done ,diana in her phases1 and each new portrayal should prove a new joy4 ,take ,maidenhood3 ,rudolph ,evans has chosen this ancient theme for his ,golden ,hour1 one of the most delightful pieces in all ,american sculpture2 ,barnard has rendered it in marble2 ,sherry ,fry's classic bronze ,maidenhood1 in the guise of ,hygeia1 and ,mrs4 ,burroughs's ,on the ,threshold are sculptural expressions of the same subject4 ,take the ,ephebos3 ,john ,donoghue's ,young ,sophocles1 dated #ahhe1 a masterpiece coming just half way1 in point of time1 between the arrival of the ,greek ,slave in ,america and the unveiling of ,mac,monnies's ,civic ,virtue1 is a gloriously conceived figure of youth in the abstract1 rather than a full-length likeness of the ,greek poet leading the chorus after ,salamis4 ,surely in sculptural mastery1 ,donoghue is much nearer to ,mac,monnies than to ,powers4 ,picking our way past the ,slave and her kin1 and coming at last upon a classic like this ,young ,sophocles1 we may safely abandon the prefix pseudo4 ,what a relief6 ,it is as if one could at last leave off over-shoes1 and walk abroad dry-shod1 in fair weather4 ,this example from the 'eighties points out once more the progress made between the ,fairs of #ahgf and #ahic4 ,does it also1 in its old-school seriousness of consecration to art1 and in its reverence for 8the nobler forms of nature0 shame a little the easy slapdash of the battalions of sketchy figures now clamoring for space in print and in the galleries8 ,probably not4 ,other times1 other ideals4 8,she certainly saved herself trouble10 was the comment of a sculptor1 looking at a modernist figure whose drapery was made by strings4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,golden ,,hour ,,by ,,rudolph ,,evans ,,chapter ,,vi ,,our ,,equestrian ,,statues ,our forefathers' first fond national desire in sculpture was for an equestrian statue of ,washington1 by ,houdon2 a wish never to be fulfilled4 ,the ,congressional impulse of #aghc was sobered on counting up the cost4 ,it came to nothing until two generations had passed2 and it came to very little even then4 ,today1 our country is sometimes called the paradise of the equestrian statue4 ,if any such paradise exists among us1 it has been created since #ahec1 when ,clark ,mills1 8never having seen ,general ,jackson or an equestrian statue10 at last succeeded1 after heart-breaking difficulties1 in casting in bronze the first equestrian statue ever made here4 ,with what passionate dithyrambs ,benvenuto ,cellini would have told the world of such a feat1 had it been his6 ,how breathlessly he would have described the breaking of cranes and the bursting of furnaces and the six tragic failures in the body of the horse before the old cannon captured by ,andrew ,jackson were finally translated into the supposed immortality of the equestrian group in bronze6 ,general ,jackson and his horse are still balancing themselves at leisure in front of the ,white ,house2 it is perhaps needless to report their aspect as a thing more strange than beautiful4 ,no one thinks this work a triumph of art1 but every serious student knows it as a much needed initial victory over the hard conditions of bronze casting4 ,you may call the group bizarre and unsophisticated in effect1 as well as wholly mechanistic by first intention2 but you cannot take from it the honor of being first in our long procession of equestrian statues1 some of them forms of the very highest distinction4 ,and you will not fail to observe the amazing improvement in style that has somehow taken place by the time our second equestrian appears2 ,brown's ,washington1 though coming but three years after the ,mills ,jackson1 remains among our fine examples in sculpture4 ,not so number three1 the ,mills ,washington1 belated and inadequate response to the ,congressional resolve in #aghc2 least said1 soonest mended4 ,better fortune came with number four1 the ,ball ,washington1 long the pride of ,boston4 ,,ii ,today1 our equestrian statues are the work of accomplished sculptors4 ,such commissions are not bestowed on weaklings or beginners1 on irresponsibles or mere experimenters4 ,in addition to genius1 the highest equestrian art demands of the sculptor certain pedestrian virtues2 such as foresight and perseverance and common sense and ability to cope with the unsuspected deviltries of men1 beasts1 and things4 ,as said in another chapter1 every sculptor who triumphs over his equestrian problem is heroic4 ,this is true whether he works single-handed or in collaboration with some other sculptor1 some one with a special gift for animal form4 ,and it remains true1 even though in our day1 no sculptor can well hope or desire1 like ,houdon1 to be 8considered under the double aspect of ,statuary and ,founder40 ,earnest men like ,cellini and ,houdon1 ,clark ,mills and ,brown have long since1 by working on their knees in sweat and grime1 paved the way for the modern organization of bronze founding to be carried on as a craft in purlieus outside the sculptor's studio4 ,many tribulations are thereby removed from the sculptor1 but enough have been added for his proper chastening4 ,those who know our ,american equestrian statues1 those who have seen the pluck and energy with which their makers have achieved their goal1 will certainly set down valor as one of the gifts belonging to the spirit of ,american sculpture4 ,,iii ,clark ,mills1 ,brown1 ,ball1 ,ward1 ,saint-,gaudens1 ,french1 ,potter1 ,partridge1 ,remington1 ,bush-,brown1 ,elwell1 ,proctor1 ,rhind1 ,lukeman1 ,bitter1 ,niehaus1 ,ruckstull1 ,bartlett1 ,mac,monnies1 ,dallin1 the two ,borglums1 ,fraser1 ,aitken1 ,miss ,hyatt1 ,mrs4 ,farnham1 ,roth1 ,packer1 ,shrady2--if without benefit of catalogue memory at once speaks all these names1 no doubt there are others also4 ,and in what infinite variety of imagination and of rendering their works stand before us6 ,the whole procession of mounted heroes produces no sense of monotony4 ,originality1 that quality overprized when prized at all as an end in itself1 appears in sufficient measure4 ,yet1 beginning with ,saint-,gaudens1 most of these well-trained artists would undoubtedly admit their debt of gratitude to ,barye and ,frmiet and ,dubois1 the ,french masters1 and beyond these1 to ,donatello and to ,verocchio and ,leopardi1 through whom the ,renaissance gave to the world those two vivid masterpieces1 the ,gattamelata and the ,colleoni4 ,if that almost mythical third masterpiece1 da ,vinci's ,sforza1 had been saved to round out a trinity of high accomplishment1 how great would have been our debt to ,italy6 ,as it is1 the void left is something every sculptor is free to fill1 if his powers permit2 there are still worlds to conquer4 ,,iv ,a strangely moving story of some such high ambition is told in the career of ,henry ,merwin ,shrady1 who died last year1 at the very time when his colossal equestrian monument to ,general ,grant was unveiled in ,washington4 ,shrady's swift uncharted course1 like that of a few artists1 variations from the type1 conformed in no way to the routine deemed necessary for most men in his profession4 ,a graduate from ,columbia1 he had successfully engaged in business for some years before he began to model animals4 ,he became a sculptor overnight4 ,his immediate success in the art of sculpture is but partly explained by referring to his cultivated intellect1 and by saying that as the son of a noted surgeon he easily assimilated the truths of anatomy4 ,nor does his success need explanation as much as recognition4 ,his success is his artist's secret1 perhaps never to be revealed1 perhaps always to remain among the imponderable things the soul will not disclose to science4 ,surely he crowded into his brief career all the rapt effort of the youthful student1 and all the more composed but no less strenuous endeavor of the assured artist4 ,from first to last1 his offerings are good4 ,but the grandiose conception of his final work1 the ,grant monument1 an epic crowded and massed with equestrian and leonine figures passionately portrayed in a kind of exalted realism1 called for continued heroic years of labor4 ,those years were at times harassed by misunderstandings with the changing officials whose presumably difficult duty it was to supervise the work in the public interest4 ,indeed1 ,shrady's equestrian concept was in this instance a thing too grandiose to be accepted1 on sight unseen1 by pedestrian minds4 ,though his art triumphed at last1 and all his promises were performed1 his life ended as the veil was lifted from its crowning work4 ,v ,i often think that the equestrian statue has a larger and more immediate power of communication than other sculptural forms4 ,this is not merely because of its weight and volume and general air of expensiveness4 ,those things belong in ever so many climes to ever so many huge prosaic monuments seen with the profoundest indifference of the human soul4 ,but the man 7or the ,maid7 on horseback is readily enough taken to heart as a person with tidings1 say as someone bringing the good news from ,ghent1 or some other definite place4 ,he or she at once becomes a figure in a drama1 that old word that means something doing2 an atmosphere of romance is at once created for the passer-by to share in1 if he likes4 ,perhaps the equestrian hero is ,mr4 ,lukeman's ,circuit ,rider1 a preacher of the ,word1 going very reverently and wisely about his ,father's business1 or else1 this being a great year for bronze circuit riding1 he is ,mr4 ,proctor's studious ,circuit ,rider1 to be set up on the ,capitol grounds at ,salem1 ,oregon4 ,perhaps he is ,mr4 ,bartlett's ,lafayette1 coming from a court of distinction1 with a message of high national import1 so that all the glory of just that must be diplomatically suggested in a large way in his own person1 while his horse must show a proud lip1 and seem to be of the kind men give kingdoms for4 ,perhaps he is ,ward's ,general ,thomas1 sitting his thoroughbred1 the first thoroughbred revealed in true mettle in our sculpture2 the ,general surveys a momentous battlefield1 8holding his own10 as ,garfield amazedly saw1 8with utter defeat on each side of him1 and such wild disorder in his rear10 and so winning the name he bore the rest of his life1 the ,rock of ,chickamauga4 ,or perhaps again the hero is a heroine1--the ,maid of ,orleans as ,miss ,hyatt has portrayed her1 uplifted by her visions and riding on to glory4 ,in any event1 it is quite clear that the equestrian statue is a storied thing4 ,and this is very hard on the solemn critic1 who1 thirsting for pure abstractions1 declares in his mistaken way that art must not tell a story1 and who for the moment highbrowbeats everybody into saying message or meaning or content instead of story4 ,meanwhile1 so far apart are the ways of criticism and creation1 the maker of equestrian statues continues to spin his romances and epics in bronze4 ,the fact that his fine theme appeals to the people not only gladdens him2 it puts him under a still more pressing obligation to show what an artist can do with such a theme1 how greatly he can enhance and exalt it4 ,he understands well enough that it is easier to begin such enterprises with gusto than to finish them with glory4 ,most of our masters of the equestrian form were lovers and knowers of the horse before they were his sculptors2 and that1 though not imperative for genius1 is valuable4 ,,vi ,aside from good workmanship1 our ,american equestrians show an individuality of conception1 now stately1 now familiarly historic1 now soberly truthful1 and almost always interesting4 ,no one but ,mac,monnies has just the ,mac,monnies ,gaelic1 ,gallic gallantry of attack1 everywhere sustained by the ,mac,monnies absolute mastery of sculptural resource2 no one but ,bartlett can impart quite that cosmopolitan touch of suavity and courtliness which tempers the eagerness of his young ,lafayette2 no one but ,bitter ever worked up such a shout and hurrah over rearing stallions for expositions1 and yet was able1 a little later1 to give ,new ,york a work of such studied seriousness as his equestrian of ,general ,sigel2 and no one but ,edward ,potter has ever told in sculpture1 during a lifetime of acquaintance with thunder-clothed necks1 so much of the honest truth about horses4 ,that clear atmosphere of practical ,christianity which envelops those two ,circuit ,riders does not in the least resemble the religious ecstasy breathing from ,miss ,hyatt's ,jeanne d',arc4 ,different again is the exalted devotion that speaks in every line of ,saint-,gaudens's ,shaw1 from the slant of the rifles1 like falling rain1 up to the brooding visage of the young commander and the presence that guides him and his men4 ,looking at the mere composition here1 one thinks often of the ,surrender at ,breda2 but the oblique lines of our ,army rifles are surely far more tragic than the upright ,breda lances4 ,each of these last-named sculptors has had a certain theme and a certain emotion to present1 and each has marshalled his resources in his own characteristic way4 ,illustration3 ,,horse ,,tamers ,,by ,f4 ,w4 ,,macmonnies ,again1 the tragedy that will always be latent for the ,southerner in the ,saint-,gaudens ,sherman1 with its dominating figure of the warrior seasoned to his great task1 yet a task to be tempered by the advancing spirit of ,nike-,eirene1 is not in the least like the kind of tragedy that enfolds ,fraser's ,end of the ,trail4 ,here the pupil does not follow the master in subject1 or in treatment1 or in those mere motions of the sculptor's tool1 too often transmitted unchanged from teacher to learner4 ,mr4 ,fraser's moving parable of a losing people is told in his own way1 and in the grand style of sculpture1 just as the parables of the ,evangelists are told in each ,evangelist's way1 and in the grand style of language1 as ,english-speaking readers are privileged to know it4 ,long before assisting ,saint-,gaudens in the ,sherman equestrian1 ,mr4 ,fraser1 from his boyhood in ,montana1 knew the horse of the untamed ,west4 ,his group is sculpture from his own experience4 ,and ,solon ,borglum's way with his far-,western themes is not at all like ,mr4 ,fraser's way4 ,solon ,borglum1 least academic of all those sculptors who still feel reverence for anatomical truths1 envelops his men and beasts in a kind of fateful weather that stirs the human heart to sympathy with them in their struggles1 whether happy or unhappy2 he veils his subjects in the hope of making them more clear to you4 ,different again is ,mr4 ,dallin's version of that great historic theme1 the mounted ,indian4 ,this sculptor's genius1 seen at its best in the commanding ,appeal to the ,great ,spirit1 placed in front of the ,boston ,museum of ,fine ,arts1 interprets the ritual of a passing race4 ,the position of this austere group at the approach to an austere building appropriately suggests to the spectator the pathos of contrast between two cultures1 the lower and the higher1 the vanishing and the enduring4 ,does not that ,indian mutely remind us of great treasure which is ours1 but in which he may not share8 ,,vii ,whether our equestrian statues1 as the groups last spoken of1 reveal a side of ,american life destined to pass from our view1 or whether1 on the other hand1 they are of the historic portrait order1 as are our most of the ,old ,world equestrians1 it is clear that the personal vision prevails4 ,the note of romance is present2 perhaps we scarcely realize how much the so-called dumb beast contributes to that4 ,mr4 ,proctor's mastery of animal form1 whether in equine or other shape1 is certain1 plain1 delightful4 ,leaving our horses for a moment1 where shall we find a 8,tyger0 as terrible and as 8burning bright0 as the ,proctor ,golden ,tiger for ,princeton1 a creature none the less awe-inspiring though seen in sphinx-like repose8 ,decidedly1 the man has the gift for animals2 ,i shall never forget how under ,mr4 ,proctor's playful influence1 one of the dullest and mangiest kittens ,i ever saw suddenly leaped up into a miracle of feline grace4 ,illustration3 ,,equestrian ,,statue ,,of ,,general ,,sherman ,,by ,,augustus ,,saint-,,gaudens ,a genius for animals is found rather often among us1 as befits a people whose fathers so lately subdued the forest-born2 it is a gift as richly special and as deeply innate as the gift1 let us say1 for religious sculpture1 or for any other lofty form4 ,through this gift1 ,miss ,hyatt and ,miss ,gardin1 ,mr4 ,harvey1 ,mr4 ,roth1 ,mr4 ,potter1 ,mr4 ,laessle1 ,mr4 ,sanford1 ,mr4 ,rumsey and many others have shown us beautiful or terrible or humorous things4 ,the presence of the horse1 the cheval1 easily gives the authentic accent of chivalry to the equestrian portrait statue1 as contrasted with its pedestrian relative2 while in a work imagined in the manner of the ,saint-,gaudens ,sherman1 the beast1 the man1 and the embodied spirit unite in an epical ensemble that appeals to the thoughtful mind4 ,one thinks of that similar trinity of ,earth1 ,man1 and ,heaven1 said to animate in humbler guise every flower arrangement poetically shaped by ,japanese fingers4 ,an artistic impulse so widely felt1 though not yet commonly revealed1 holds out its promise for future creations in art4 ,at present1 the fact that ,reinhold ,begas in ,germany and ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens in ,america have lately used this motive in equestrian art is perhaps unduly prohibitive for other sculptors4 ,true1 neither artist knew what the other was doing2 ,saint-,gaudens was somewhat taken aback on learning of the ,begas design4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,relief1 ,,high ,,and ,,low ,i ,how summarize an art that shows us sculptured form1 not in the faithful four-square roundness of fact1 but in a subtly chosen and poetic projection of fact8 ,for the manifestations of the spirit of relief are legion4 ,a relief of a certain figure may have scarcely the thickness of a flower petal1 or again it may have an even greater salience than life itself4 ,all depends upon its purpose4 ,when ,i am told that ,mr4 ,aitken and ,mr4 ,mac,neil are making some studies1 in relief1 ,i do not know whether ,mr4 ,aitken is at work on another large equestrian subject like that of his ,george ,rogers ,clark monument1 or whether he is devising one of his little medallic ,pegasi such as his ,watrous medal2 and ,i do not know whether ,mr4 ,mac,neil is to give us a new coin1 such as his quarter-dollar of a recent series1 or a new memorial as imposing as his military monument at ,albany with its serried stone warriors in relief4 ,surely it is a ,protean art that can produce the ,brenner cent1 the ,weinman dime1 the ,fraser ,victory medal2 that can make the ,saint-,gaudens portrait of ,stevenson a suitable adornment for the church of ,st4 ,giles in ,edinburgh2 that can decorate the faade of ,st4 ,bartholomew's in ,new ,york with bronze portals crowded with figures of the apostles and crowned with marble tympana of the saints2 that may even serve the dynamic purpose of ,rude's great ,chant du ,dpart on the ,paris arch and the static majesty of ,calder's ,washington and ,mac,neil's ,washington paired on the ,new ,york arch4 ,when we remember all the little coins and medals in the world1 and all the architectural ornament1 structural or otherwise1 on the buildings of the world1 and all the religious reliefs of ,bible story such as those that ,mino and the ,della ,robbias have left us1 and all the patriotic and allegoric tales hoisted aloft into pediments and springing up on arches1 it is clear that relief sculptures vastly outnumber the other sort4 ,how often sculptors must have hailed relief as an escape from rendering facts in the round1 to be seen all around6 ,for commemorative portraiture in the public square1 the future will probably make a wider use of high relief 7or even of low relief1 properly framed7 to take the place of the portrait statue1 often the result of a purely automatic choice4 ,and the purely automatic choice is not a choice at all2 it is a habit4 ,,ii ,i am told on high authority that there are many persons who think that a bas-relief in sculpture is a form resulting from an exactly proportioned flattening of the same subject in the round4 ,it is also dismaying to find that there are those who would invent a machine whereby on some principle of proportionate recession from the eye a bas-relief could be produced from a form in full-blown dimensions4 ,is not the art of sculpture already sufficiently mechanized8 ,and surely a good look at a fine relief should dispel mechanistic illusions4 ,for in relief1 if nowhere else1 live sculpture laughs at the despotism of mathematics4 ,even the tyro in relief portraiture soon finds that he cannot give the human ear the projection from background that a proportional representation would demand2 he sees that to do this would exalt that whimsical volute beyond its merits1 and divert attention from other and perhaps more delightful1 more characteristic features of a face4 ,if his portrait is in profile1 as is not unlikely1 he discovers that this profile is in itself a very telling thing1 and that he can make it interesting or lively by softening a contour here1 by hardening it there1 by letting it alone somewhere else1 by sinking or by raising parts of his background2 before long he has discovered1 as ,egyptians and ,italians and ,frenchmen and ,americans before him have discovered1 a thousand devices of art1 not algebra1 that give his relief a look of life and truth4 ,in short1 his work will never seem so false and so far from sympathetic as when its chief quality is that it is topographically true in its proportionate flattening4 ,of course ,i feel ashamed to say such things baldly1 when so many of our ,american bas-reliefs have said them poetically4 ,my excuse is that my words may drive some unbeliever to look at the works4 ,for1 as the ,metropolitan ,museum's curator of prints lately said in an address1 8,art in this country doesn't need to be talked about2 it needs to be seen40 ,illustration3 ,,welch ,,monument ,,by ,,herbert ,,adams ,,iii ,someone promptly asks what are the rules of relief4 ,but are rules of much use here8 ,rules of relief are seldom mentioned by the sculptor2 never until after they have been patently transgressed4 ,he has of course his standards2 he allows to his reliefs some of the privileges of painting1 such as perspective and distance1 but he does not presume too far with these borrowings1 lest his work lose its sculptural style4 ,a relief is largely a matter of innate artistic feeling1 as well as of trained taste4 ,and quite as much as a work in the round1 it tells the personality of its maker4 ,a ,saint-,gaudens relief1 whether the monumental bronze ,shaw1 or the marble portrait1 slightly under life-size1 of ,mrs4 ,stanford ,white1 or the little reduction1 8about as large as the hand of a child of twelve years10 made from the bas-relief of the baby ,homer1 reveals the artist's temperament1 shows his principles and prejudices in art4 ,many of this master's pupils have made memorable reliefs in various styles from medallic to monumental4 ,the medals and portrait-reliefs of ,martiny1 ,flanagan1 ,fraser1 and ,weinman are well-known4 ,less familiar to the general public because kept in private collections are the admirable bronze or marble portrait-reliefs by ,frances ,grimes4 ,after the mechanical roughing-out of the pointing-machine is over1 ,miss ,grimes herself finishes all her marbles1 whether created in the round or in relief4 ,she does this oftener in her studio than in the ,sunday picture papers2 and because her designs for marble are from their first rude beginnings in the clay imagined with a full realization of their final possibilities in marble1 they naturally have an integrity not always attained in the work of sculptors unfamiliar with the chisel4 ,,iv ,most artists would probably agree with ,saint-,gaudens that 8the great coins are the ,greek1 444 just as the great medals are those of the fifteenth century by ,pisanello and ,sperandio40 ,illustration3 ,,victory ,,medal ,,by ,,james ,,earl ,,fraser ,but he who designs the modern ,american coin1 however enthusiastic he may be in his admiration of the ,greek high relief masterpieces of monetary beauty1 must take serious and constant thought of the curiously un-,greek conditions confronting him4 ,his coin must work harder than the ,greek coin2 it must 8stack0 properly2 it must be struck in numbers undreamed of in ,hellas4 ,our difficult modern ideal calls alike for quantity and for quality4 ,comparatively limited as was the circulation of our recent ,victory medal1 four million copies were considered necessary4 ,one of the good precedents introduced by ,roosevelt1 in consultation with ,saint-,gaudens1 was that of entrusting the designing of our coins to our most talented sculptors2 the resulting improvement in our coinage1 on the sthetic side1 has been one of our twentieth-century triumphs4 ,and the 8great medals0 ,saint-,gaudens loved are still influencing the medallic art of the ,western world4 ,the candor and warm simplicity of ,pisanello and ,sperandio were perhaps lost sight of during those years while the earlier ,french master-medalists of the nineteenth century1 ,david d',angers1 ,oudin1 and ,ponscarme1 were paving the difficult way for a later and more sympathetic flowering of the medallic art in the hands of ,roty1 ,chaplain1 and ,charpentier4 ,but the delightful quality of the ,renaissance medal was never more deeply appreciated in ,france than at the time when a goodly number of our ,american sculptors were studying there1 and shared in that appreciation2 and now that the modern reducing-machine allows the artist fully to develop his design for a medal in a fairly large size before bringing it within the final small circumference1 it is certainly well for him to bear in mind the admirable results obtained by the less sophisticated quattrocento methods4 ,never before has the medalist had at hand as many excellent mechanical aids as at present4 ,never before has he faced a greater need of remembering the value of clarity in his vision1 of simplicity and sincerity in his touch4 ,some of our purists maintain that every medal should be modeled from first to last in its ultimate size1 however trying and meticulous this task may be4 ,but does not such strictness denote a rather rabid hostility to mechanical contrivances8 ,there are medals whose intricate yet logical design could hardly be carried out by the human hand1 no matter how skilful1 within the narrow limits thus prescribed4 ,of this type is the plaquette designed by ,saint-,gaudens as a token of gratitude to all who took part in the ,masque of the ,golden ,bowl1 offered to him on a famous anniversary4 8,within its harmonious oblong are shown the columns and the blazing altar and the ,greek seat that figured in the scene1 framed by the proscenium arch of great ,new ,england pines1 and by the stage-curtains crowned with masks invented by the joyous fancy of ,maxfield ,parrish2 below is the triumphal chariot2 and1 as a symbol of the love that prompted the pageant1 there stands by the altar the winged figure of ,amor1 who has borrowed the lyre of ,apollo4 ,the names of the seventy figurants are beautifully inscribed1 making a decoration for certain spaces in the background2 this feature1 naturally prized by those who received the medal1 was made possible by modeling the original on a large scale4 ,here is no hodge-podge of unrelated symbols1 but a beautiful and lovingly considered arrangement of deeply significant things4 ,we associate with it the same sculptor's ,columbus medal-obverse1 and many reductions1 in plaquette form1 from his portrait reliefs4 ,while delighting in the conceptions of antiquity and of the ,renaissance1 ,saint-,gaudens1 more than any other master of his day1 made a faithful study of all the conditions of the modern portrait relief40 ,illustration3 ,,plaquette ,,by ,,augustus ,,saint-,,gaudens ,the fact that this sculptor not only prized the bas-relief form1 but also achieved a beautiful originality in it has of course turned many ,americans to the same path of expression4 ,it is one of the delightful ways in which modeling can take an occasional half-holiday from the facts of form4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,of ,,garden ,,sculpture ,,and ,,ornament,a ,i ,visitors were standing by the fountain in the garden of a sculptor2 and some one was asking him what in his opinion was the most beautiful material to model in4 ,the questioner probably had in mind clay1 wax1 stone1 metal and other solid substances2 but the sculptor answered quickly3 8,water4 ,there is nothing in the whole world so marvelous to manipulate as water40 ,a gleam of creative rapture lit his face4 8,shall ,i show you my #8,veil of ,mist8' or would you rather see my #8,jeweled ,elm-,tree8'0 ,a ,this chapter is largely a reprint1 permitted through the courtesy of the ,american ,magazine of ,art4 ,there are few sculptors who have not been fascinated at one time or another by the designing of fountains1 with their primary interest of sculpture and their secondary mystery and magic of water2 whether of still water1 with its mirrored pictures of blue sky1 dark trees1 many-colored flowers and sun-flecked walls2 or of gently dropping water1 suggestive of leisure and repose2 or of leaping1 flashing1 dancing water1 hypnotic even without copper or silver balls tossed up and down2 or of water brought from afar in grandiose cascades or canals1 as in the garden art of the ,villa d',este1 the ,villa ,lante1 ,versailles1 and ,saint ,cloud2 or even of water turned at great cost to wondrous baroque inventions for drenching the unwary bystander1 as in the ,villa ,aldobrandini4 ,fortunately1 at the present hour1 the practical joke in fountains is out of date2 and there is a growing use of fountains as memorials1 either stately or intimate1 either in public squares or in private gardens4 ,setting aside the innumerable pots1 urns1 sarcophagi and other 8containers0 for trees1 shrubs and flowering plants1 the larger part of our garden sculpture centres about water and its works4 ,besides the more or less imposing figure fountain1 with its bronze boys1 dolphins1 fauns1 nymphs1 ,nereids1 ,tritons1 turtles and other hardy perennials of the aquatic imagination1 there are tanks1 reservoirs1 bathing pools1 all no less practical if touched with some suggestion of the sculptor's art2 there is the basin of the well-known pozzo type1 flowering out into putti1 corpulent or lean1 bending under their swags of foliage and fruit2 there is the little wall-fountain1 borrowed from the lavabo of ,renaissance churches1 and dear to the careful gardener1 replenishing from it the green-painted1 fine-snouted watering-pot kept sacred to his tiny seedlings4 ,then there is the water-spout1 ready with its witty word of grotesque1 and the rainwater pipe-head1 in which ,english lead-work of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries displayed a vigorous and interesting art4 ,there is even the bird-bath1 that modern invention of the nature-lover1 since today1 though we profit by many of the garden ideas of the ,renaissance1 we do not imitate those ,siennese gallants who tied blinded thrushes to the dwarf ilex and cypress1 to decoy winged creatures for convenient garden shooting4 ,the twentieth-century bird-bath lures birds to life rather than to death1 as is shown in a decorative bronze by ,annette ,saint-,gaudens1 who has represented upon it characters in ,percy ,mac,kaye's bird-masque1 ,sanctuary4 ,the masquing spirit is afoot these days with new opportunities for sculpture2 the outdoor stage1 now no very uncommon feature in private gardens and groves1 shows a retaining wall and other boundaries ready for suitable sculptural accent by means of statues1 ,herm1 vases1 mascarons or garlands4 ,illustration3 ,,bacchante ,,by ,f4 ,w4 ,,macmonnies ,as not every day is fit for verse1 so not every artist is gifted with the happy hand for designing garden forms4 ,it is a temperamental matter2 generally the note should be that of joy1 or at least of serenity4 ,mr4 ,mac,monnies's ,bacchante and his ,boy with ,heron long ago set the perfect pace of gayety for ,american gardens4 ,and today1 what gladder creature this side of ,arcady can you find than the ,mac,monnies ,duck ,baby8 ,unless it is ,edith ,barretto ,parsons's laughing ,child with ,turtle1 or else one of ,miss ,scudder's engaging imps of ,frogland4 ,some of our most accomplished sculptors have delighted us with their garden art4 ,how exquisite is the graciousness of ,john ,gregory's kneeling ,philomela1 a statue lately designed for the bird-garden of ,mrs4 ,payne ,whitney6 ,no figure in recent years has seemed more original and alluring than this 8blithe spirit0 considering the wonder of her pinions4 ,illustration3 ,,fountain ,,figure ,,by ,,janet ,,scudder ,the garden sculptor should have above all a true dramatic instinct for the rle his work is to play in the garden ensemble--a fine relation-sense which will by no means clip the wings of his design4 ,you can not make pleasure-sculpture out of accurate letter-of-the-law nature-copying alone4 ,in a fountain figure1 for example1 with its silhouette seen under varying conditions1 today drenched with sun and tomorrow dripping with water1 all according to wind and weather1 surely the artist has much to consider aside from inch-by-inch anatomical modeling4 ,sculptors know this1 but sometimes forget it1 when once launched out on the simple joy of 8copying a morceau40 ,here we touch a great difficulty in our art education4 ,in spite of all the chattered tomfoolishness of the hour1 the fact remains that for most artists1 the school training is the beginning of wisdom4 ,it is not a goal1 but a starting-point2 it gives firm ground for future creative flights4 ,yet no house can be well built of foundation-stuff alone4 ,the school provides a foundation1 and something of a ground-floor besides1 but the artist himself must build his own upper stories4 ,he must create his own personal syntheses in art1 with the help of the repeated analyses practised by him in school4 ,and now comes his perilous moment2 to survive1 he needs time and opportunity4 ,the most advanced type of artistic training1 that offered by our ,american ,academy in ,rome1 does not begin and end with ,houdon's 8,copiez toujours10 but allows for contemplation1 for self-communion1 for the personal synthesis1 and for the exchange of thought between sculptor1 painter and architect1 so that each may understand the other's aims4 ,american art today needs all the mellowing and broadening influences that both the contemplative and the communicative spirit can bestow4 ,mr4 ,manship's figures and groups1 with their rich inventions of rainbow-winged fancy1 are here to prove that the ,academy is not an ogre1 whose chief delight is to crush personal genius4 ,but human frailty does not easily part with its incurably romantic ideas of a fabulous monster2 the public demands a scape-goat2 it would rather than not believe in the ,evil ,eye2 and the mood of the moment1 with the injudicious1 is to charge all untoward influences in art to some ,gryphon of an ,academy1 of which little is known1 and everything suspected4 ,,ii ,meanwhile1 ,mr4 ,manship from ,rome and ,mr4 ,mc,cartan in ,new ,york have both proved in their work that they not only know how to model the nude and compose a statue1 but1 what is far more rare1 that they can 8handle ornament40 ,now ornament is often regarded as beneath the notice of the new-fledged sculptor1 while as a matter of sad fact1 it is more likely to be quite beyond his powers2 and this is partly because he lacks invention1 and partly because he is without knowledge of the rhythms of design2 not hearing the music1 his mind cannot march4 ,garden sculpture as well as severe monumental form calls constantly for the light touch or the strong arm of ornament4 ,noting our ,american lack in this direction1 the ,society of ,beaux ,arts ,architects1 in coperation with the ,national ,sculpture ,society1 has been at pains to install in ,new ,york ateliers in which the ornament-modeler1 as distinct from the sculptor1 may seriously study his art4 ,and when an artist like ,mr4 ,mc,cartan designs and models the exquisite ornament seen upon his ,barnett ,prize ,fountain1 a new hope is breathed into the efforts of those who would improve our ,american standards in artistic craftsmanship1 and break down the stupid barrier between artist and artisan4 ,somewhere in the unknown lies a vast continent of design-forms not yet touched by any ,columbus--a wealth of fauna and flora not of the ,acropolis or the ,roman ,forum or the ,gothic cathedral1 but akin to ,greek and ,gothic in beauty and power2 and the world is waiting for these new good things4 ,,iii ,given our garden fountain1 with or without its ornament1 what more natural than a coign of vantage from which to enjoy it8 ,the exedra1 as introduced to us long ago by ,mc,kim1 ,white and other architects1 has been eagerly adopted by garden lovers4 ,a beloved spot at ,aspet1 the ,saint-,gaudens estate1 holds in the far distance a blue sky1 a blue mountain and a lordly crest of purple pines2 in the middle distance is a magic stretch of simple grass1 while near at hand1 and flanked by a rosy tracery of oleander blossoms1 a golden god ,pan pipes to the seven golden fishes spouting water into a green-veined white marble basin1 rectangular in form4 ,facing this1 and shaded by pines1 hemlocks and silver birches1 is a great white exedra1 planned not on the usual curve but on the three sides of an oblong1 and showing in relief1 on the end of each wing1 an ivy-crowned faun1 by ,louis ,saint-,gaudens4 ,two giant terra-cotta vases1 made in this country from ,italian originals1 stand at the entrance to the pergola that garlands the 8old studio02 in an upper garden1 a bronze ,narcissus leads the eye toward the house1 with its white balustrade accented by gracious heads of the ,seasons4 ,some years ago1 ,i saw in the garden of a sculptor an exedra with outlines pleasing to the eye1 and comfortable to the anatomy4 ,the material was concrete1 that first aid to the garden-mad and their domestic sculpture4 ,inquiry brought out the fact that the contour had been established by the sculptor's actual sitting down1 in propria persona1 in a roughly shaped mass of fresh concrete4 ,to use the human frame as a heroic modeling-tool1 or templet1 struck me at that time as a delightfully unique idea in sculpture2 today1 with so many artists keen for the queer1 it would doubtless seem a mere commonplace2 one might even be glad that the human templet was not used upside down1 in the pursuit of novelty4 ,but to speak justly1 our garden sculpture has not succumbed to the idea that queerness is higher than beauty1 and a shock to the spectator a richer artistic achievement than his delight4 ,garden art in our country is no longer in its infancy1 and not yet in its decadence4 ,accepting the broad principles of ,italian garden design1 7such as the treatment of the garden as a place to live in1 the harmonizing of the house with the garden1 and the adaptation of both to climate and landscape7 it does not today admit the baroque puerilities of the hydraulic practical joke1 or the grotto of mechanical toys and monsters4 ,fortunately1 much of our landscape gardening is in the hands of true artists1 who employ the best resources of other days1 and the genius of modern sculptors4 ,among the oldest inhabitants of gardens are the ,herm1 or boundary gods1 once used1 it is said1 to define limits of land1 but now freed from that dull task1 to be set up 7singly1 or in pairs1 or in rows7 wherever found desirable1 as to accent a terrace1 or to flank a flight of steps4 ,the variety of type is infinite2 male and female1 these terminal deities are the chorus in the grand opera of garden sculpture1 the only rule laid upon them being that they must play the foursquare post below the waist1 and look pleasant above4 ,marble is their best dress1 but they may with good effect wear terra-cotta in the paler tones2 a material well adapted also for the legion of great decorative pots1 round or square1 that 8help so0 in gardens either intimate or imposing4 ,many garden owners collect 8antiques10 delightful enough even though some of them1 like women and music1 are perhaps better left undated4 ,renaissance sarcophagi are put to the cheerful uses of pink geraniums2 capitals and fonts and well-heads bubble over with all sorts of blooming things4 ,in the sun-dial1 little regarded by the ,latin temperament1 but dear as the lawn itself to the ,britannic imagination1 the ,american sculptor has a subject that cannot be accused of alien origin4 ,associated chiefly with ,english landscape art1 it nevertheless may 8mark only happy hours0 in more formal surroundings4 ,harriet ,frishmuth and ,brenda ,putnam are our most lately laureled dialists2 both have been successful in adapting the well-modeled human figure to this form of garden sculpture4 ,alas1 that in every human effort shown out-of-doors1 the climate has always the last word6 ,good old ,horace1 grumbling impressively about the hard winters of ,tibur1 would find his sandaled toes shrewdly nipped in a ,cornish garden on the ,ides of ,december1 with ,mercury's winged heel quite capable of hitting well below the zero mark4 ,in ,italy1 the tooth of time is not a bad sort of modeling-tool2 it has carved a veil of illusion for triviality1 and has given a new grace to things already beautiful4 ,but in our northern latitudes1 the tooth of time does not model2 it ravages and corrodes1 often with incredible swiftness1 and due winter precautions must enshroud our garden sculpture4 ,the question of material is ever with us4 ,bronze endures1 but turns dark2 marble is fair1 but frail4 ,in the dooryard of many an ,american artist1 home-grown miracles have been wrought from cement4 ,i recall charming tennis benches1 with ornamented ends2 a wall-fountain with reliefs of satyrs2 some great vases enriched with the owner's coat-of-arms1 and cast in a three-piece mold2 and numerous basins1 posts1 balustrades and steps4 ,but trowel-sculpture has its limitations1 and the question of durability has not yet been fully answered by the years4 ,perhaps1 at some future day1 science will co-operate with art1 and produce for the garden sculptor a material as easily modeled as terra-cotta1 as exquisite as marble1 as impressive as granite1 and as durable as bronze4 ,until then1 we must manage as best we can with the materials the ancients had1 though under climatic conditions more favorable than ours2 and we may at least note with thankfulness that in garden art as in all things annihilation has its uses4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,of ,,small ,,bronzes ,,and ,,great ,,crafts ,i ,akin to the faculty for creating garden sculpture is the gift for designing those 8small bronzes0 in which ,american connoisseurs are now taking a happy interest4 ,the general public also is being made familiar with the best of these pieces2 a result reached through the initiative of the ,national ,sculpture ,society and the enthusiasm of our ,american ,federation of ,arts in sending out traveling exhibitions of small bronzes to various cities4 ,the small bronze may be either a potentially perfect reduction from some full-sized masterpiece1 as in the well-known ,saint-,gaudens reliefs reduced from larger originals2 or it may on the other hand be designed from the start in the ultimate size4 ,both types are excellent4 ,american sculpture today counts scores of artists with a sure and delightful touch for the latter type4 ,some of our women sculptors have created little masterpieces in this intimate and friendly form4 ,bessie ,potter ,vonnoh is an acknowledged leader here2 one might say that she is the originator of an ,american genre1 in which small size does not for a moment imply either a trifling imagination or a petty rendering4 ,i well remember ,mr4 ,howells's enthusiasm for ,bessie ,potter's figurines when they were first shown at a ,new ,york exhibition4 ,their authentic ,american note captivated him4 8,these10 he declared1 8are real creations in sculpture40 ,the same may be said of ,miss ,eberle's vivid groups and figures from street and fireside and doorstep2 they have the charm and integrity of folk-lore tales told in a plastic medium4 ,animal form1 as in the days of ,barye and ,frmiet1 easily disports itself in this field4 ,miss ,hyatt1 ,mr4 ,roth1 ,mr4 ,laessle and others press all the imaginable joys of ,la ,fontaine's fables within the contours of their bronze goats and bears1 tigers1 turkeys1 and elephants4 ,like the fables themselves1 these bronzes are classics1 as in the stricter sense1 the delightful groups of ,manship and ,jennewein are classics4 ,generally speaking1 we do not like a look of toil and endeavor in our small bronzes2 we want something spontaneous1 whether graceful or humorous4 ,well and good4 ,yet here again is a real danger2 anyone who has had the sobering privilege1 year by year1 of reviewing the rank and file of little plastic works presented for exhibition knows very well that many of these pieces utterly lack the solid qualities of construction1 workmanship and an understanding of nature's detail4 ,,ii ,one of the brighter possibilities of the small bronze designed in its ultimate size is that it may well be cast by the cire perdue process4 ,that name is not altogether a happy one1 because in truth less of the sculptor's personal touch is 8lost0 by this method than by the sand process of bronze casting4 ,by the lost wax method1 it's the sculptor's own fault if there's anything wrong with the wax figure as it leaves his hands4 ,a mold made of a composition suitable for enduring the subsequent impact of molten metal is then built up directly on the wax figure1 which has of course its insoluble core4 ,this stout mold or shell1 closely enveloping every knob and crevice of its wax kernel1 is subjected to heat2 the wax is thus melted out2 and1 if all is well1 an absolutely perfect space is left behind it1 between core and shell1 ready to receive the red-hot bronze4 ,the cire perdue process theoretically avoids all unseemly seams1 all ill-joined joints4 ,at its best1 it approaches perfection2 and such work is as well done in our country as anywhere on earth4 ,illustration3 ,,centaur ,,and ,,dryad ,,by ,,paul ,,manship ,the small bronze has then its two separate manifestations4 ,it may present itself either as a reduction from some much larger work worthy of wide recognition and ownership1 or as a spontaneous first-hand offering of a sculptural thought well-suited for expression within modest confines4 ,in either shape1 its cost is not prohibitive for many of our private citizens as well as for our museums4 ,the cause of art and the delights of possession are advanced side by side4 ,,iii ,whether we look at a little book-end bear in bronze1 or at a heroic equestrian statue in bronze and stone1 or at a colossal monument in granite or marble1 the importance of fine craftsmanship is evident4 ,the artist is the last person in the world who can afford to underrate the craftsman4 ,not long ago in reading an essay on literary criticism1 ,i was confronted with this impressive query3 ,what has the navel done for modern life8 ,of course modern literature in its desire to be impressive asks many curious questions of the reader1 but this one about the navel seemed unduly wide of the mark4 ,i was disturbed until ,i suddenly perceived that the printer had used an a for an o2 the luckless author had meant to ask about the novel1 not the navel4 ,but the artist in words suffers less often at the hands of his helping craftsman than does the artist in paint or clay4 ,the sculptor in particular runs grave risks4 ,even the forces of nature conspire against him2 the fair-faced marble hypocritically hides her blemishes until weeks of carving lay them bare4 ,even chemistry betrays him2 the bronze that should be perfect everywhere has perhaps a spongy place or a 8tin spot0 or a treacherous seam just where it does the greatest possible damage to his statue4 ,one of the advantages of the ancient apprentice system was that the beginner in art could learn all the tricks1 and not only the tricks but the very serious difficulties of the various trades that help to bring the artist's work to completion4 ,our ,american sculpture1 which after all began timidly enough as a kind of craftsmanship1 has at certain periods of its immaturity forgotten the importance and dignity of the crafts on which it depends for a fair presentation4 ,bronze casting has indeed advanced greatly through the fact that modern sculpture has become largely an expression in clay1 to be made permanent in bronze2 sculptors have demanded good casting1 and they have obtained it4 ,in general1 the sculptors of the world are no longer masters who release from stone1 either hard or soft1 the image circumscribed within4 ,to reach their results1 they do not as a rule start from the assumption of ,michelangelo1 as ,symonds translates it3 ,the best of artists hath no thought to show ,which the rough stone in its superfluous shell ,doth not include3 ,they look on their work as a building-up in clay1 rather than as a cutting-down in stone4 ,well1 why not8 ,if the word plastic keeps its old meaning of something shaped1 and glyptic its meaning of something carved1 surely the sculptor may without reproach choose his approach2 always provided that this approach is the one best suited to the matter in hand4 ,but even here1 changes are already visible4 ,on both sides of the ,atlantic a few sculptors are harking back to the fine old ,gothic tradition which animated ,michelangelo1 that spirit who was at once a late fruit of the ,gothic and a great flowering of the ,renaissance4 ,perhaps we owe to ,rodin this modern return from plastic to glyptic8 ,at any rate1 the movement is but lightly sketched1 except as seen in some of the enormous monuments of ,middle ,europe1 and in particular in the powerful works of the ,serbian ,mestrovic1 as well as in those of recent insurgent followers of ,rodin4 ,an odd fact is1 that some of these last1 in seeking the titanic1 have attained the ,teutonic1 especially when their theory of deformation has betrayed them4 ,and1 of course1 any new style1 vital or not1 will breed new errors4 ,criticism has had of late a tendency to scold sculptors for not seeing things as ,michelangelo did1 or as the artist of 8,le ,beau ,sourire de ,reims0 did4 ,it is perhaps surprising that the eloquent medival craftsmanship suitable for ,caen stone or limestone1 and beautiful in its place1 has not attracted a larger interest and a wider experiment among us4 ,however1 ,miss ,hoffman has just completed an important and unusual ,war ,memorial in ,caen stone4 ,mr4 ,mac,monnies's great ,washington monument at ,princeton is of limestone1 most thoughtfully carved1 and not at all in the impetuous new manner2 it may prove to be a forerunner of other ambitious enterprises in this material4 ,but ours is an unkind climate4 ,the sculptured forms of ,italy and ,france have not had to endure the extreme changes of heat and cold well-known here4 ,we have interesting varieties of marble and granite1 and have made but a beginning in the exploration of their possibilities as adapted to our weather4 ,a very beautiful tradition in marble-cutting has been built up in our country by the ,piccirilli family1 six brothers among whom are distinguished sculptors and distinguished craftsmen4 ,their output1 which includes both their own original works and their faithful renderings in stone of the works of other sculptors1 is known throughout the country1 and has inspired good craftsmanship4 ,thus in the major crafts of bronze casting and of marble-cutting1 ,american sculpture is fairly fortunate today4 ,in the one1 we have come a long way from that first attempt in #ahdg2 in the other1 we have craftsmen who for large work to be seen at a distance can sufficiently well translate into stone the sculptor's finished models4 ,we have also for our salvation a few sculptors1 who1 like ,chester ,beach1 are peculiarly gifted in wresting from the marble1 and with their own hands1 their own visions4 ,but ,mr4 ,beach is different again from most of his contemporaries1 in that he is successful in his command over all the final materials in which a sculptor's work may be presented1 whether terra-cotta1 stone1 or bronze4 ,with a modern and highly interesting vision of beauty1 and with an absolute understanding of the principles of sculpture1 this artist respects both the art and the craft of sculpture4 ,sometimes it would seem that the finer the artist1 the finer his appreciation of craftsmanship4 ,of course if one were to judge by the pictures in the ,sunday supplements1 all sculptors carve their marbles themselves2 they seem to do little else4 ,that is not true1 alas4 ,certainly a busy sculptor may well save himself for other matters besides roughing-out a block of marble4 ,but a serious sculptor will generally wish to give the finishing strokes1 few or many1 a matter of weeks or of months1 to any marble work that leaves his hands4 ,in modern stone-cutting1 the pneumatic tool is indeed a miracle-worker2 and for that very reason1 it bears constant watching from the sculptor whose work it translates4 ,mr4 ,john ,kirchmayer1 an artist in the field of wood-carving1 has described in a recent article the mischief wrought for this art by too great a dependence on the machine1 a dependence that atrophies the native genius of the craftsman4 ,his counsel is the same that all arts and crafts must follow3 ,use the machine but do not abuse it4 ,when the cheapening of production means the debasing of the product1 it is time for art and the machine to part company4 ,,chapter ,x ,,the ,,national ,,sculpture ,,society ,other gifts besides those commonly acknowledged as the artist's peculiar possession are needful if the advancement of art and the status of the artist are to be fitly assured4 ,these other gifts belonged to the painter ,morse when in defending the interests of art-study he played his important part in founding our ,national ,academy of ,design in #ahbe4 ,they belonged to the artists who1 in espousing the cause of the young ,saint-,gaudens half a century later1 broke away from the ,academy to form the ,society of ,american ,artists4 ,they belonged also to those later spirits who1 perceiving the weakness of that disunion1 managed somehow to gather the ,society back into the bosom of the ,academy1 to the chastening of both factions4 ,and they belong in good measure to ,mr4 ,f4 ,w4 ,ruckstull1 an ,american sculptor of widely recognized ability1 who in #ahic1 with the help of ,mr4 ,charles de ,kay and others1 was foremost in assembling the body since known as the ,national ,sculpture ,society4 ,mr4 ,ruckstull and the other charter members had no personal tocsin of revolt to sound2 they simply saw1 as intelligent artists and citizens1 that their art and their country needed such an organization1 8to spread the knowledge of good sculpture40 ,to begin with1 sculpture is not easy to exhibit4 ,far more than any living painter has ever acknowledged1 it suffers acutely from unfriendly lighting4 ,the old proverb that good sculpture looks well anywhere ought to be amended to add1 it looks its best only in its chosen light and space4 ,sculpture's appetite for space1 at times modest1 is at times illimitable4 ,the ,academy1 always hard-pressed for space in its annual exhibitions1 cannot afford to give up large well-lit areas for sculptures of heroic size4 ,the ,architectural ,league is hospitable toward sculpture1 but1 the aims of this body being many and diverse1 it certainly cannot favor the sculptors above all other comers4 ,once in a while1 if not oftener1 our sculpture should be shown under the happiest conditions4 ,again1 sculpture1 even more than painting1 has active contacts with the worlds of government1 whether municipal1 state or federal2 it should be able to present itself with the authority naturally vested in an honored group of experts4 ,and sculptors1 quite as much as painters and architects1 must stand together lest personal interest wrong the general good1 and lest individuals fall into misunderstandings either among themselves1 or with the public1 to whose intelligent opinion they1 like other citizens1 must commonly submit4 ,the ,society1 founded in #ahic1 and incorporated in #ahif1 has had from the first an extraordinarily vivifying influence in matters of sculpture4 ,it has labored for the public good1 in harmony with various private committees1 with ,municipal ,art ,commissions1 and with the ,federal ,commission of ,fine ,arts4 ,its first president1 ,john ,quincy ,adams ,ward1 believed enthusiastically in its work and destiny4 ,his first annual report emphasizes the fact that its 8reputation will be established by its deeds1 not by empty promises40 ,in the ,society's second year1 ,ward was called upon1 in association with ,warner and ,saint-,gaudens1 to give counsel as to the sculptural decorations for the ,library of ,congress1 the architecture of this building being at that time in the hands of ,edward ,p4 ,casey4 ,mr4 ,casey showed a fine zeal in getting the best possible sculpture for the ,library2 besides the usual structural ornament1 his scheme called for fountains1 three pairs of bronze doors1 and for a circle of twelve imposing bronze statues by almost as many sculptors4 ,the results were in general very happy1 and at once established a high standard4 ,and this is important1 because the fine public building enhanced by sculpture is of service in the progress of art1 as we see from the ,brooklyn ,museum1 the ,new ,york ,public ,library1 the ,cleveland ,court ,house4 ,among the 8deeds0 foreshadowed by ,mr4 ,ward were certain memorable exhibitions of sculpture1 enterprises of genuine value to the community4 ,these exhibitions were wisely and enthusiastically arranged in collaboration with landscape architects and florists2 beautiful works fitly shown proved a surprise and a joy to both public and connoisseurs4 ,the public was reminded that sculpture is a living art1 with roots and branches2 that it is not dedicated entirely to pediments1 portrait statues1 and other monumental grandeurs2 and that sculptured forms may charm the eye of the home-maker and the garden-lover1 in intimate possession4 ,in #ahii ,charles ,r4 ,lamb1 a charter member1 born with a vision of the ,city ,beautiful and working always toward the realization of that great dream1 conceived the thought of the ,dewey ,arch as a dignified free-will offering from our sculptors1--an offering that would take a central and beautiful part in ,new ,york's public tribute to the hero of ,manila4 ,that idea somehow captured the fancy of ,mr4 ,lamb's fellow-artists4 ,immediately and unreservedly1 they gave themselves to the sculptural decorations of this arch and its approaches2 ,mr4 ,ward1 full of years and honors1 set the pace by his vigorous design for the crowning group of ,naval ,victory4 ,it was rightly said that the names of those sculptors who dedicated themselves to this ,arch constituted a roll of honor4 ,the result of their labors was impressive beyond expectation4 ,the ,dewey ,arch1 though a temporary structure1 lives in our remembrance2 it is vivid in our annals as an example of whole-hearted artistic co-operation2 it gave a precedent for our later historic transformation of ,fifth ,avenue into the ,avenue of the ,allies1 an enterprise to which our sculptors once more devoted their gifts4 ,these rousing masculine gestures of civic pride have a value4 ,at the very least1 they keep the world from falling into the belief that ,fifth ,avenue is no more than a bright shop where beautifully painted flower-face girls choose endless bubbles of adornment1 only to speed away self-regarding yet unsatisfied on their tiptoe silvery shoes4 ,it is true that of late there has been grumbling as to the choice of any arch as a monumental form fitted to express the tribute of our citizens to patriotism4 ,this disapproval is sometimes warranted1 sometimes merely superficial4 ,the arch1 as we shall doubtless see within the next generation1 has its own place in our time2 collaboration between sculptor and architect has never been better understood than at present4 ,to reject an arch because it obstructs traffic1 because it is out of scale1 because it does not fit its surroundings1 because it is needlessly magnificent1 because it does not express the emotion it pretends to express1--all this is very wise1 and important when true4 ,but is it not stupid to reject the arch just because the ,romans liked it8 ,however1 discussion as to the value of the arch in our coming ,war memorials is beside the mark in looking back on the ,dewey ,arch as a fine example of artistic co-operation4 ,a valuable activity has been the sending out of small sculptures on tour throughout the country4 ,commenting on the universal public need of something with increased beauty to replace the story-telling ,rogers groups of other days1 a president of the ,society wrote in #aiac3 8,the time was ripe when some four years ago the ,national ,sculpture ,society carefully selected and sent out as a traveling exhibition nearly two hundred small bronzes which made a circuit of the museums in some eight or ten of the important cities4 ,the responsive interest was as immediate as it was unexpected1 and thousands of people gave expression to their pleasure in seeing what had hardly been known to exist4 ,in ,chicago alone1 over thirty thousand persons visited this first exhibition4444 ,this year1 under similar auspices1 and the management of the ,pittsburgh ,art ,society1 another collection of entirely different bronzes is passing from one museum to another1 and meeting the same warm reception from the public40 ,established in ,new ,york1 the ,society has proved by work of this kind that it is truly ,national in its aims4 ,earnest inquiries and knotty problems are sent to it from all quarters of the ,united ,states4 ,at one time it will be asked to 8prepare the program for the competition for the #ajj1jjj ,american ,baseball ,monument40 ,again1 it will be found considering the question1 8,what will it cost to produce #cj1jjj medals within three weeks80 ,only a great moral earnestness joined to a knowledge of art and some acumen in judging human nature can properly answer some of the queries submitted4 ,the ,society's professional membership includes nearly all persons in the ,united ,states who practise the art of sculpture with dignity and merit2 it is safe to say that any renowned sculptor remaining aloof from the organization is an individualist1 doubtless with a congenital distaste for organized effort4 ,the ,society's lay membership is an unusually large and distinguished group1 made up in the main of disinterested lovers of art4 ,in addition to the proverbial reward of virtue1 the lay members receive from time to time some tangible souvenir1 such as a small bronze designed by a sculptor member1 or a monograph4 ,these tokens occur often enough to attest good will1 but not so often as to lose the charm of the unexpected4 ,the list of professional members reveals a surprisingly large number of names of women4 ,it will be remembered that ,mr4 ,ward1 that figure of virility personified1 cordially invited women sculptors to become members of the ,society1 and to join in the deliberations of the council-table4 ,chesterton1 in his story of ,victorian literature1 has emphasized the importance of women writers in the development of the ,english novel4 ,in our country1 the importance of women engaged in sculpture as a gainful occupation has steadily increased during the past half-century4 8,enter the race10 said ,mr4 ,ward1 8asking no odds60 ,commissions for statues were once given to women1 it must be confessed1 out of what ,dr4 ,johnson might call 8,pure ignorance1 ,madam40 ,how otherwise can we explain the spectacle of our chivalrous ,congressmen entrusting to a girl of fifteen the making of a statue of ,lincoln8 ,it is indeed said that 8all the great sculptors of the period submitted models1 but that the committee1 after careful study1 decided that the model of the little ,ream girl surpassed all others40 ,the child surely had genius2 she had the further advantage of quiet half-hours of study of ,lincoln from life4 ,but to-day1--well1 it isn't supposed to be done6 ,thanks to the ,national ,sculpture ,society1 such competitions are at present generally conducted with even-handed justice4 ,nowadays1 women who receive really important sculptural commissions are expected to deserve them out of the fullness of experience4 ,in #aiaa1 ,i was unwise enough to write1 apropos of the monumental equestrian statue1 that this field was for man's working1 and that it would not in the near future offer any very large place aux dames4 ,but it chanced that the fifth centenary of ,jeanne d',arc fell due soon after1 and ,miss ,hyatt1 paying no attention to my grotesque observation1 began work on her equestrian statue of the ,maid4 ,rarely has any such statue been studied with as fine a vision of the relative claims of art and archology4 ,in #aiae1 ,miss ,hyatt's work was unveiled on ,riverside ,drive4 ,it is one of the best-loved monuments in the city of ,new ,york2 and from the day of its unveiling1 ,i have forsworn prophecy4 ,otherwise1 ,i might be tempted to add that at present1 given the tradition of apprenticeship still keeping its last stronghold in some of the studios1 and given the ease with which assistance may be obtained for the ruder manual labor1 there is no reason why women may not be trained to solve with success the usual sculptural problems4 8,because they are conscientious1 and because they have imagination10 were the reasons given by a sculptor who employed women assistants4 ,the ,national ,sculpture ,society's ideals1 to be valuable and enduring1 must concern themselves with the ethical as well as the artistic side of various questions brought before the body4 ,on the ethical side1 it has1 not without inherent difficulties1 established its ,code governing ,competitions1 the ,code itself being governed by the ,society's avowed principle of fostering art with integrity4 ,year by year1 the good work of this ,code is shown by the larger clarity of purpose and of statement1 and the larger conscientiousness in endeavor now expected alike from committees1 competitors1 and juries of award4 ,some of the thoughtful idealists of the ,society have long wished that it could undertake as part of its work an enterprise that might prove of untold value in the arts4 8,if instead of wrangling so long and so devotedly over our ,code10 said one of these idealists1 8we could have given the time to establishing a workshop for scientific experiments with our various materials1 what immense practical good might have been accomplished6 ,but it would take money1 more money than our ,society has ever had at its disposal40 ,the field for such experiment is boundless4 ,science properly applied could help the sculptor at every step4 ,think what it would mean to the sculptor if he had a plastic material which by the magic of chemistry could be at once converted into an imperishable material1 exactly as it leaves his hands2 or if the metallurgist would find him an alloy of metals which would take on1 or even hold1 a beautiful patine when exposed to our atmosphere2 or if the chemist could explain some of the strange antics and prevent the misbehavior of that go-between1 common plaster1 which plays such a vital part in a sculptor's work from the clay model to the final marble or bronze4 ,plaster is indispensable1 in spite of its shortcomings2 could not this lifeless1 chalky stuff be transformed into a substance both durable and interesting8 ,and marble1 that sovereign among materials1 is there no way by which its fine white crystals could be made to take on other tones than those nature has given8 ,the questions are legion4 ,with the amazing advance of practical chemistry within the last few years1 many of them might be definitely settled by scientific experiment4 ,it is to be hoped that in the near future the ,national ,sculpture ,society will acquire its needed research workshop1 and put out publications of the results obtained1 so that science may assist art as generously as in an allegory of mural decoration4 ,we have spoken of idealists4 ,no member of the ,society has proved himself a more practical idealist than ,mr4 ,lorado ,taft1 long an enthusiastic teacher of the modeling classes at the ,chicago ,art ,institute1 and to-day a force for art not only in the ,middle ,west1 but throughout the country4 ,mr4 ,taft is the sculptor of the ,black ,hawk monument1 the grandiose fountain of ,time1 and other works well-known indeed1 but not because he himself in his thousands of lectures and in his two important books on sculpture has ever taken the opportunity to advertise his own talent4 ,the fact is ironic1 even grotesque2 by voice and pen ,mr4 ,taft has for years disclosed the merits of all sculpture save his own4 ,lesser artists than himself have been genially interpreted in his vivid and conscientious expositions4 ,his public service for sculpture1 a service now widely welcomed1 was begun in the ,middle ,west1 a part of our country which because of its early settlement by ,americans1 ,germans1 and ,scandinavians of enlightened stock1 was early interested in artistic endeavor1 and which today has some of our strongest art schools and museums4 ,nowhere else could his work have been begun so usefully4 ,as sculptor1 traveler1 lecturer1 writer1 ,mr4 ,taft gives himself with unfailing zest to that first avowed object of the ,society1 8to spread the knowledge of good sculpture40 ,during the ,world ,war1 and throughout the subsequent period of striving to wrest world betterment out of world bewilderment1 the ,society has remained active in its chosen work4 ,the ,spring of #aiah saw the opening by the ,metropolitan ,museum of a permanent exhibition of contemporary ,american sculpture2 and to quote from a ,bulletin of that time1 ,mr4 ,french1 the honorary president of the ,society1 8to whose gallant initiative and untiring endeavor the success of the undertaking is largely due1 is as truly an ,american patriot as if he were a very young man with a very new rifle1 now gazing eagerly toward the coast of ,france40 ,robert ,aitken and ,sherry ,fry1 sculptors already distinguished in their profession before serving abroad with our ,army1 have doubtless through their military experience gained something of value to them as artists and as citizens4 ,by the death of ,harry ,thrasher1 killed near ,rheims1 the ,society has lost one of its promising members2 one who1 having richly profited by his advanced studies at the ,american ,academy in ,rome1 seemed at the outbreak of the ,war to stand on the threshold of high achievement in art4 ,those who knew him well have said that in his work as a sculptor1 varied though this was1 his genius was seen at its best in spacious and heroic conceptions1 and that had he been spared1 the heroic would have been as fully expressed in his art as it has been expressed in his life and its final sacrifice4 ,the recent untimely death of ,solon ,borglum1 an artist in whom a winning personality was joined to integrity of purpose and originality of outlook1 was doubtless hastened by hardships met during his devoted service in ,france4 ,such men well illustrate the hope of the ,national ,sculpture ,society as to the quality of its membership2 as sculptors and as citizens1 they gave themselves to their art and to their country4 ,in the stimulating opportunity for exhibition offered to ,american sculptors through the courtesy of the group of learned ,societies housed in stately fashion in upper ,broadway1 the ,national ,sculpture ,society desires once more to show1 in a creditable manner and to a discerning public1 the beauty and serviceableness of the art its members practise4 ,broadway at #aefth ,street is unlike any other ,broadway in the world4 ,the air is finer and clearer there than elsewhere1 yet not too fine and good for human nature's daily breathing4 ,very hospitable are the terraces and galleries of the ,hispanic ,society1 the ,numismatic ,society1 the ,american ,academy of ,arts and ,letters1 the ,american ,geographical ,society1 the ,heye ,foundation4 ,the ,national ,sculpture ,society counts on a dignified setting such as it has never before enjoyed1 together with a sympathetic collaboration such as it has always appreciated1 to achieve a worthy revelation of sculptured form4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,influences1 ,,going ,,and ,,coming 8,quid quisque vitet1 nunquam homini satis cautum est in horas40 ,i ,sometimes we talk as if the present state of things were a sort of terminus2 as if by many roads we had at last reached ,rome4 ,would it not be wiser to look upon the ,olympian ,washington and the ,adams ,memorial and the lately-discussed ,civic ,virtue as so many figures marking stations of a journey by no means finished8 ,we have had competent leaders in the immediate past of our sculpture2 is there anything in our ,american way of life and our ,american view of art that will prevent our having competent leaders in the future8 ,we are too close to that question to answer it1 beyond saying that we are full of hope4 ,and art is one of those matters concerning which despair is criminal4 ,certainly the chaos resulting from the ,world ,war is not as yet sufficiently transformed for the wisest to know from what ,ark1 high and dry on what ,ararat1 will issue the new hopes of all mankind4 ,we can only cry out with ,galsworthy1 not yet are there enough lovers of beauty among us4 ,our introductory chapter noted with some emphasis the fact that through ,jefferson's hands the realism of ,france and the idealism of ,italy came to the aid of our new-born plastic art4 ,houdon happened to be a greater sculptor than ,canova2 it was our good fortune that we had ,houdon at all4 ,and ,jefferson drew the curtain for a steadily unfolding act in the drama4 ,since his day1 ,france and ,italy have always been our chief allies in our sculpture4 ,because of this1 and because of the ,roman origin of most of the ,british culture our early settlers brought with them1 bred in the bone1 it follows that the main current of ,american sculpture1 in thought1 in feeling1 and even in workmanship1 has been fed from the boundless streams of ,mediterranean civilization4 ,now and again1 a ,celtic influence1 a ,german influence1 a ,scandinavian influence has made itself felt1 for better or for worse4 ,each new influence as it comes we shall prize for what it is1 after the gloss or shock of novelty is worn off4 ,each may have an importance we can but guess at4 ,saint-,gaudens was deeply conscious that he had received his legacy of artistic sensitiveness quite as much from his ,irish mother as from his ,french father1 born in ,southern ,france not far from those sculptured mountains on which many a ,french poet and artist opened infant eyes4 ,perhaps ,celtic glamor was all that made his vision of man somewhat different from that of many of his comrades at the petite cole1--just different enough to give his later work a chance at immortality1 while the images they shaped had to go back dumb to the clay-pit again4 ,it is a great gift1 the ,celtic eye1 though making small boast of seeing things steadily and seeing them whole2 ah1 nothing so prosaic as that6 ,celtic melancholy and ,celtic mirth raise up a kind of shimmering rainbow-dust through which an image is seen in glorious parts2 and ,celtic exasperation loves stir more than steadiness4 ,but the plodders need the seers2 and ever since the time of ,crawford and his ,past and ,present of the ,republic1 our sculpture has been graced and enlivened by many a ,mac and ,o2 never more so than to-day4 ,the ,wren epitaph fits them even during their lifetime3--,circumspice4 ,so in our country as in ,britain1 the ,scottish and the ,irish and the ,welsh strains in the blood key up the ,english-speaking peoples in their arts of vision and expression4 ,yet when all such things are said1 7and much more might be said1 with unmannerly talk of 8creeping ,saxons0 and the like7 the fact remains that the future art of the ,united ,states is even less easy to foreknow than that of the ,british ,isles2 and this because of what we call our 8melting-pot0 population1 with all its benefits and drawbacks1 its clamorous and conflicting ideals in art and in morality4 ,the great ,american alembic is still seething4 ,newer forces than any that have come from ,britain and ,france and ,italy are now stirring here4 ,what of these8 ,mr4 ,sloane1 in his address on the sculptor ,ward1 reminded us of the slow evolution of sculpture1 of the long journey between the ,memnon and the ,hermes1 of the swifter travel between ,greek art and our own1 and of our recent return1 not only to the classic1 but to the oriental4 ,that inquiring look toward the ,orient1 a corner of the earth always revered in occidental art1 was never so general as at present4 ,some time ago1 the studies of our sculptors at the ,american ,academy at ,rome led them to the eastern borders of that richly intricate rim of the ,mediterranean basin2 a rim from which we are still plucking jewels of hitherto unimagined splendor1 such as those of ,tut-ankh-,amen's tomb4 ,but before pressing still farther eastward1 let us glance a moment at the familiar influences of recent formative years4 ,,ii ,we differentiate too rudely if we say offhand that ,american sculpture has learned its art from ,france1 its craft from ,italy4 ,the truth cannot be told so simply as that4 ,for instance1 the ,piccirillis1 ,american artists and craftsmen of ,italian ancestry1 are but a few out of many talented ,american sculptors of ,italian birth4 ,again1 we went to ,france for lessons in casting bronze1 as well as in making our weekly 8bonhomme0 at the cole4 ,yet for the whole ,western world of sculpture during the past forty years1 the strongest general influence has been that of the ,french school1 and the strongest single influence that of a ,frenchman aloof from the school1 ,auguste ,rodin4 ,no thinking sensitive person who uses clay to shape his visions and earn his living has failed to feel ,rodin's influence2 it is already so deeply imbedded in consciousness that many of those who most imitate this master are least aware of so doing4 ,it would be a mistake to suppose1 because the shouting is over1 that this powerful influence has wholly waned4 ,we have spoken of the uses of collaboration4 ,but there are souls that would perish rather than collaborate4 ,some of these belong in the ranks of genius1 others are distinctly due elsewhere4 ,of the former class was ,rodin1 never willing or able to subject himself to any architectural tradition4 ,even while writing of ,rodin's consistent refusal of collaboration1 ,i hear the ironic voice of ,m4 ,anatole ,france1 a veteran in one art speaking of a veteran in another3 8,et surtout1 avouons-le1 il collabore trop avec la catastrophe40 ,and he adds1 with that sparkle of malice veterans allow themselves but not others to use when speaking of veterans1 8,il abuse du droit de casser ce qui1 dans une uvre1 est mal venu40 ,according to ,m4 ,france1 ,rodin collaborates1 and even too much2 not with architecture1 as a more conventional soul might1 but with architecture's logical opposite1 catastrophe4 ,it is more fruitful to dwell on the gifts of genius than on its limitations2 yet the limitations also must be noted1 whenever blind worship confuses defects with qualities4 ,it was a limitation 7and so the ,socit des ,gens de ,lettres found it7 that ,rodin could not bring himself to any architectural conception of his ,balzac3--,balzac1 more architecturally minded than even the ,english novelist ,hardy2 ,balzac1 who will not let you once look at ,pre ,goriot until you have a clear understanding of the plan and elevation of the sordid pension where the poor man lives2 ,balzac1 who jealously hides ,eugnie ,grandet from you until you have mastered every arch and cornice of the gloomy mansion that shelters her2 ,balzac1 who insists that you must know period and style and galleries and window-glass of la maison ,claes before you can peer at ,madame ,claes4 ,balzac built his novels that way because to his mind man's architecture is part of his life1 his fate1 his rle in the ,comdie ,humaine4 ,so what ,rodin did lacked basic fitness4 ,in that portrait statue1 the ,rodin of it was more precious to him than the ,balzac of it2 he could make no compromise4 ,now an advancing civilization will make its honorable compromises2 and it seems to me that ,saint-,gaudens's way of letting the significant winds and waves play about the architectural pedestal or deck that ,farragut bestrides is more civilized than ,rodin's far simpler way of letting the magnificent head of his ,balzac emerge from monstrous shapelessness to splendor4 ,the ,balzac looks splendidly begun1 the ,farragut splendidly brought to completion4 ,there is indeed a charm in things greatly begun4 ,such things suggest the untamed glory of the human spirit1 and give skyey space for the beholder's imagination to dip its wings in4 ,the poorest of us in looking at them can at least conjecture1 if not create4 ,and a very present refuge for the sculptor is that lump of marble which says nothing but suggests much in ,rodin's portraits of women1 and in many of his ideal groups with certain surfaces of soft flesh exquisitely carved in their emergence from the hard stone4 ,those melodious modulations of light and shade in flesh are ,rodin's secret2 here his genius is forever happy4 ,that woman's marble back1 for instance2 one thinks that if one should touch it1 the skin would yield and pale and redden again4 ,rodin himself1 in his talk of his own work and of the classic masterpieces he loved1 constantly uses the word 8esprit0 rather than 8chair10 and from his point of view there is no inconsistency in that4 ,gratefully we acknowledge that this master has showed the wonders of both flesh and spirit4 ,it was well for ,american sculpture to applaud both triumphs4 ,what next8 ,next1 there were certain mannerisms better left unlearned by our students2 for example1 that use of large extremities1 a choice announcing a healthy abhorrence of prettiness4 ,we have seen in our land many a ,bertha ,broadfoot and many a ,helen of the ,large ,hand created by those who had not ,rodin's excuse for this avoidance of conventional proportion2 they were not revealing the scarce-finished new beings of ,paradise1 or the muscular striding bulk of a ,john the ,baptist in the wilderness4 ,there is yet another mannerism filched by admiring disciples2 perhaps it is something less superficial than a mannerism4 ,we need not take ,m4 ,france too seriously when he says of ,m4 ,rodin1 8,il me smble ignorer la science des ensembles40 ,it is a saying fitter to live in the flow of talk than to be embalmed in print2 yet it draws blood1 too1 with its prickly edge of truth4 ,rodin's ensembles are his own1 not those of sane tradition2 his imitators' ensembles are often pitifully less good than those of either ,rodin or the school4 ,that is serious6 ,at the present moment1 many ,american ,war monuments are in the making2 too many1 perhaps1 are casting away collaboration and tradition4 ,their creators seem unaware that they are under an influence2 they think they are showing originality1 preaching the gospel of simplicity1 and in a really messianic way1 calling architecture to repentance4 ,but1 nowhere is the architectural conception of work more necessary than in a new country4 ,without that conception1 these ,united ,states would be besprinkled with productions richer in the one virtue of individuality than in the many virtues of order1 unity1 harmony1 an underlying sense of natural evolution and continuity4 ,our civilization is not yet jaded1 and does not yet need prickings toward variety4 ,for ,american sculpture1 the lesson of ,rodin's genius1 as distinct from the lesson of the school1 is that of the titanic conception and the exquisite morceau1 but not that of harmonious collaboration4 ,meanwhile1 it is cheering to see that the singular doctrine of deformation distilled in ,france by vigorous modern followers of ,rodin is at present neglected here2 when we turn modernist1 as sometimes happens1 we choose the path of abstractions1 seeking perhaps ,epstein's 8form that is not the form of anything10 rather than form amplifying itself into ugliness1 in defiance of classic balance and measure4 ,in fact1 a recent piece of the new poetry1 written about a recent piece of the new sculpture tells us that 8the immaculate conception of the inaudible bird occurs in gorgeous reticence40 ,gorgeous reticence is perhaps preferable to gorgeous loquacity4 ,,iii ,for a long time1 and without conspicuous success1 ,mr4 ,howells tried to show his friends the beauty of ,russian realism4 ,apparently much of the ,american appreciation that did not go out to ,turgenev was being saved for ,chekhov1 and for those later realists whose writings chime with the discords and disillusions of the 8expressionism0 now making itself felt in various arts4 ,both here and in ,england1 the ,russian influence is visible in literature4 ,but sculpture is slower than literature to accept the exotic2 sculpture's magisterial weight and bulk1 and its supposed permanence1 help to make it more self-contained and less mercurial in its reactions4 ,and indeed all the ,russian influence our sculpture has hitherto met has been of the ,gallic variety2 ,troubetskoy's brilliant pleinairiste modeling is as ,french as ,marie ,bashkirtseff's painting4 ,meanwhile1 ,russian peasant drama is having its brightly colored successes here1 in our richest of ,american cities1 especially among those of our intelligentsia who can afford the price of admission1 or who as critics make their living by appraising novelties in art4 ,since ,american criticism is often created by youth and for youth1 its various impregnable positions shift with a rapidity that has a certain advantage for a listening public2 no one who is guided by a youthful ,mentor needs to remain long in any one error4 ,but ,heaven forbid that youth1 and most of all opinion-shaping youth1 should abandon a generosity of outlook toward foreign products of the mind6 ,to speak seriously1 it will be interesting to know just how the increasing ,slavic element in our population will influence our country's arts in general1 and our self-contained art of sculpture in particular4 ,when a teacher of art remarks1 in some dubiety1 8,so many of our students have names that end in #8sky'10 the only gallant retort is1 8,it is our business to be sure that they make no worse end than that40 ,not the least of art's problems here in ,america is that universal ,american problem of the unassimilated alien4 ,optimists and pessimists can unite in one opinion2 that our latest immigrants1 no less than those of the ,mayflower1 have certain native qualities that need alteration for the benefit of the human race4 ,the ,puritan has altered for the better4 ,later comers must do likewise4 ,some of these have a far harder task than the ,puritans1 with less ability to perform it2 but they have infinitely more help4 ,mr4 ,john ,corbin1 in one of his penetrating studies of dramatic art1 has pointed out 8two stages of ,american provincialism40 ,one stage rejects all foreign culture2 the other embraces anything foreign1 provided that it is abundantly subversive of domestic ideals and labors and attainments4 ,both stages are hostile to truth and to progress1 and to the only freedom there is1 freedom of the spirit4 ,the first type wilfully stunts growth2 the second invites destruction of growth already accomplished by costly effort4 ,surely ,american sculpture1 which has borrowed eagerly abroad and developed soundly at home1 should not fall into either of these degenerate modes of thinking4 8,quid quisque vitet10 says ,horace1 with his canny ,roman philosophy1--8,what hourly to avoid is known by none40 ,what hourly to accept is our modern question4 ,since a man's foes may be of his own household1 what if our own home-grown materialism were after all the worst enemy of our art8 ,it will do little good to fly feverish alien contacts if at the same time things of the spirit are allowed to languish at our own ancestral firesides4 ,sometimes the firesides themselves seem less frequent1 as ancestors diminish in the world's esteem4 ,true1 our tawdry and vehement self-advertising has its magnificent dreams1 and our childlike faith in the dollar its occasional glorious hour of justification2 we cannot help seeing that some of our transatlantic co-workers in art and letters come among us remembering those things4 ,and it is a healing principle of civilization that we shall borrow our light from one land1 and divide our loaf with another2 even though loaves are wasted thereby4 ,every lover of our country will wish its culture to remain at once hospitable and self-respecting2 both characteristics may dwell harmoniously together4 ,in spite of superficial indications such as those offered by the names in a city telephone directory1 the core and nucleus of general culture in the ,united ,states remains ,english-speaking2 more1 it remains true to ideals of human conduct and human responsibility that have been fruitfully developed and cherished by the ,english-speaking peoples4 ,whatever lightly-accepted beliefs there may be in regard to this matter1 ,i am persuaded that the broad basis of ,american culture is and will be our ,puritanism4 ,not the narrow1 mote-seeking ,puritanism of past story1 but an enlightened1 liberating ,puritanism1 with perceptions and pardons for others1 and with questionings as to its own supposed superiorities2 a ,puritanism that has gained in grace and goodness through native development and happy alien contacts4 ,how often we have mumbled an ancient shibboleth to the effect that art and morality have nothing in common6 ,on the contrary1 they have the one supreme aspiration of human beings in common2 the benefit of the race4 ,it is the little artist who proclaims himself different from other men1 and so not subject to their laws2 the great artist strives to bring his personality and his work into harmony with the best that he knows of human effort4 ,magnanimous men and women unconsciously reveal their longing that their work may live after them for the happiness of mankind4 ,ward on his death-bed1 finally assured that all is well with the great equestrian that had engaged his last thoughts1 whispers to his wife1 8,now ,i can go in peace40 ,saint-,gaudens in the later pages of his ,memoirs writes of the knowledge of the beautiful3 8,i know it is a question whether such a knowledge increases the general happiness and morality of a community4 ,i firmly believe it does1 as ,i believe that any effort to do a thing as well as it can be done1 regardless of mercenary motives1 tends to the elevation of the human mind40 ,illustration3 ,,victory ,,by ,,augustus ,,saint-,,gaudens ,illustration3 ,,the ,,gilliss ,,press ,transcriber's ,notes ,punctuation1 hyphenation1 and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book2 otherwise they were not changed4 ,simple typographical errors were corrected2 unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious1 and otherwise left unbalanced4 ,illustrations in this e,book have been positioned between paragraphs and outside quotations4 ,in versions of this e,book that support hyperlinks1 the page references in the ,list of ,illustrations lead to the corresponding illustrations4 ,text uses 8today0 and 8to-day0 with equal frequency2 both forms retained here4 ,page #c3 ,transcriber removed duplicate book title4