BIOGRAPHY
Essentially self-taught, Daniel Chester French studied briefly in the 1870s with John Quincy Adams Ward, William Rimmer, William Morris Hunt and Thomas Ball. In 1873, he was awarded the substantial commission for the life-size Minute Man (bronze, 1874) erected in Minute Man National Historical Park, Concord, MA, to commemorate the Battle of Concord. In what became one of his best-known pieces, he adapted the Classical Apollo Belvedere (Rome) for his New England farmer to create a sturdy image that forcefully characterizes the determined patriotism of the men who defended their land. After two years in Italy (1874–6), French worked in Washington, DC, and Boston, MA, executing architectural sculpture and a number of portraits, including a distinguished marble bust of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1879).
French’s next major commission, the seated statue of John Harvard (bronze, 1884), received creditable reviews; however, he still had not reached artistic maturity. While in Paris in 1886–7, he improved his modelling technique and absorbed current French tendencies. A comparison of John Harvard and the Thomas Gallaudet Memorial (bronze, 1888) reveals the enormous benefit that French derived from his stay in France. Not only is the pose of Gallaudet more relaxed than that of Harvard, but French handled his medium with a greater degree of ease and confidence. If the shirt in Harvard has stiff, repetitive folds, in Gallaudet it hangs in a more realistic fashion.
French settled in New York and opened a studio from which he established a reputation—alongside Augustus Saint-Gaudens—as the leader of American sculpture. He was selected to contribute works that were placed prominently in such large collaborative projects as the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, the bronze doors at the Boston Public Library (1904) and The Continents (1907) at the US Custom House in New York. More private in location and content, and superior in composition and sensibility, are the Milmore Memorial (‘Angel of Death and the Sculptor’; bronze, 1891; Jamaica Plain, MA, Forest Hills Cemetery), and the Melvin Brothers Memorial (‘Mourning Victory’; marble, 1908; Concord, MA, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery), two funerary monuments that are among the sculptor’s finest achievements. French’s interest in landscape architecture led him to collaborate with the architects to integrate the sculptures with their sites harmoniously. The masterfully conveyed meaning of these two works makes them especially profound and affecting statements about death.
The over life-size, seated and meditative Abraham Lincoln (1914–20) for the Lincoln Memorial (Washington, DC), French’s most famous piece, became a national icon and crowned the artist’s long and celebrated career. He continued to sculpt until his death at Chesterwood, his summer home and studio in Stockbridge, MA, which subsequently opened as a museum in his memory.
A chronicler of American heroes and themes, French brought his works from sketch, quarter-size, half-size and occasionally full-size model to completion with the precise, disciplined and measured qualities that were a trademark of his personality. The advent of abstraction cast a shadow over his academic, neo-classical style; nevertheless, well into the 20th century, he continued in the same mode that had brought him acclaim.
Essentially self-taught, Daniel Chester French studied briefly in the 1870s with John Quincy Adams Ward, William Rimmer, William Morris Hunt and Thomas Ball. In 1873, he was awarded the substantial commission for the life-size Minute Man (bronze, 1874) erected in Minute Man National Historical Park, Concord, MA, to commemorate the Battle of Concord. In what became one of his best-known pieces, he adapted the Classical Apollo Belvedere (Rome) for his New England farmer to create a sturdy image that forcefully characterizes the determined patriotism of the men who defended their land. After two years in Italy (1874–6), French worked in Washington, DC, and Boston, MA, executing architectural sculpture and a number of portraits, including a distinguished marble bust of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1879).
French’s next major commission, the seated statue of John Harvard (bronze, 1884), received creditable reviews; however, he still had not reached artistic maturity. While in Paris in 1886–7, he improved his modelling technique and absorbed current French tendencies. A comparison of John Harvard and the Thomas Gallaudet Memorial (bronze, 1888) reveals the enormous benefit that French derived from his stay in France. Not only is the pose of Gallaudet more relaxed than that of Harvard, but French handled his medium with a greater degree of ease and confidence. If the shirt in Harvard has stiff, repetitive folds, in Gallaudet it hangs in a more realistic fashion.
French settled in New York and opened a studio from which he established a reputation—alongside Augustus Saint-Gaudens—as the leader of American sculpture. He was selected to contribute works that were placed prominently in such large collaborative projects as the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, the bronze doors at the Boston Public Library (1904) and The Continents (1907) at the US Custom House in New York. More private in location and content, and superior in composition and sensibility, are the Milmore Memorial (‘Angel of Death and the Sculptor’; bronze, 1891; Jamaica Plain, MA, Forest Hills Cemetery), and the Melvin Brothers Memorial (‘Mourning Victory’; marble, 1908; Concord, MA, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery), two funerary monuments that are among the sculptor’s finest achievements. French’s interest in landscape architecture led him to collaborate with the architects to integrate the sculptures with their sites harmoniously. The masterfully conveyed meaning of these two works makes them especially profound and affecting statements about death.
The over life-size, seated and meditative Abraham Lincoln (1914–20) for the Lincoln Memorial (Washington, DC), French’s most famous piece, became a national icon and crowned the artist’s long and celebrated career. He continued to sculpt until his death at Chesterwood, his summer home and studio in Stockbridge, MA, which subsequently opened as a museum in his memory.
A chronicler of American heroes and themes, French brought his works from sketch, quarter-size, half-size and occasionally full-size model to completion with the precise, disciplined and measured qualities that were a trademark of his personality. The advent of abstraction cast a shadow over his academic, neo-classical style; nevertheless, well into the 20th century, he continued in the same mode that had brought him acclaim.
REFERENCES
Biography adapted from Kathryn Greenthal. "French, Daniel Chester." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.<http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T029846>.
Artwork behind title: Daniel Chester French's Kinsley Memorial (detail)
Biography adapted from Kathryn Greenthal. "French, Daniel Chester." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.<http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T029846>.
Artwork behind title: Daniel Chester French's Kinsley Memorial (detail)
