Adams, Adeline: The spirit of American sculpture (New York: Nat. Sculpture Soc., 1923)

AMERICAN SCULPTURE

it in the studios of American expatri-
ates in Rome and in Florence. Until
1876, we had been dreaming, stum-
bling, aspiring; making false moves in
plastic art. A few early triumphs
shine forth from the prevailing medio-
crity ; but it must be owned that
Cooper, Hawthorne, and Emerson, in
the world of letters, have no vigorous
contemporaries in the world of sculp-
ture. During the ’eighties, however,
a group of really strong and charac-
teristic pieces of American sculpture
emerges by slow degrees. Ward had
already produced his noble equestrian
statue of Thomas. He now placed his
bronze Washington in front of the
Sub-Treasury in New York, and his
Pilgrim in Central Park. In 1881,
Saint-Gaudens put out his incompar-
able Farragut; his Puritan appeared
two years after Ward’s Pilgrim.
Daniel Chester French, with notable
work behind him, came into his own

PREFACE

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