DOI issue:
No. 53 (July, 1901)
DOI article:Caffin, Charles H.: American Studio talk: sculpture at the pan-american exposition
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22775#0106
A merican Studio Talk
“GREAT WATERS IN DAYS OF WHITE MAN”
PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION
BY GEORGE GREY BARNARD
and are stuck against the parapet wall without any
intelligible connection. They are clever composi-
tions, extremely slight in motive and very French
in feeling, but fall short of the dignity that their
position and subject demanded. It is agreeable,
however, to note the expressive simplicity of their
coloring, the ample distribution of their lights and
shadows. On each side of these is a fountain
group by Michel Tonetti.
On the face of the Electric Tower, flanking the
fall of water, are two pyramidal compositions by
George Grey Barnard, which typify Primeval
Niagara and Niagara To-day. In each, from the
prow of a boat, surrounded by subsidiary figures,
rears up the form of a man: the one, an Indian,
commending himself to his gods as his boat is
swept to destruction by the torrent; the other, the
white man, rising from the water and celebrating his
triumph over its power. Such, we are told, is the
idea involved, but should scarcely gather it from the
viii
rendering, which lacks, too, those elements of large
conception and treatment for which we are accus-
tomed to look in Mr. Barnard's work. The span-
drels of the tower have been filled effectively by
Adolph Weinmann ; and numerous niches contain
single statues symbolizing the lakes by Carl E. Tefft,
Henry Baerer, Ralph Goddard, Louis A. Gudebrod,
and J. Massey Rhind. Surmounting the structure,
385 feet above the level and itself another 25 feet
high, is the Goddess of Light, by Herbert Adams,—
a winged figure poised on the right foot, the left leg
carried back, the left arm extended downwards, the
right upraised. It is a conception of grace and
animation that forms a beautiful finial to the majestic
dignity of the structure.
While the above notes by no means exhaust the
tale of sculptural effects, they have touched upon
the most prominent ones, prepared for the occasion.
At vantage points about the grounds will be found
the General Washington by Daniel C. French and
E. C. Potter, the original of which stands in the
Place d’Kna in Paris; Charles Grey Barnard’s Pan,
and C. E. Dallin’s Medicine Man, both exhibited at
the Exposition of 1900 ; and the General Sherman,
the latest work of Augustus St. Gaudens, and prob-
ably the noblest yet produced in this country.
There can be no need to redescribe it, but to see it
again is to fall as readily as before under the spell
ot its exalted spirit and splendid mingling of un-
subduable energy and profound control.
Inside the Art Palace, at the entrance to which
are two fine animal studies by Eli Harvey, will be
found St. Gaudens’ Angel, and amongst many of
his bas-reliefs, the large one of Stevenson so per-
suasively beautiful in the subtle refinement of its
lines and planes. William Couper is represented
by his Reading Angel; Charles Grafly, by several
compositions, including that very impressive one,
the Vulture of War; R. E. Brooks, by a strong
and manly figure of General Cass ; Paul W. Bartlett,
by a copy of the Michel Angelo and a study for the
Lafayette statue ; F. Edwin Elwell, by a Dancing
Girl; John Gelert, by The Little Architect; and
Daniel C. French by his figures for the Hunt Me-
morial. There is a group of Indian subjects by
Frederic Remington, and examples of kindred sub-
jects by that clever and original sculptor, Solon H.
Borglum. These are some of the exhibits that
attracted one’s notice; but at the time of writing
the display is not completely installed, and a
comprehensive survey is impossible. But evidently
the selection has been made with admirable dis-
cretion.
“GREAT WATERS IN DAYS OF WHITE MAN”
PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION
BY GEORGE GREY BARNARD
and are stuck against the parapet wall without any
intelligible connection. They are clever composi-
tions, extremely slight in motive and very French
in feeling, but fall short of the dignity that their
position and subject demanded. It is agreeable,
however, to note the expressive simplicity of their
coloring, the ample distribution of their lights and
shadows. On each side of these is a fountain
group by Michel Tonetti.
On the face of the Electric Tower, flanking the
fall of water, are two pyramidal compositions by
George Grey Barnard, which typify Primeval
Niagara and Niagara To-day. In each, from the
prow of a boat, surrounded by subsidiary figures,
rears up the form of a man: the one, an Indian,
commending himself to his gods as his boat is
swept to destruction by the torrent; the other, the
white man, rising from the water and celebrating his
triumph over its power. Such, we are told, is the
idea involved, but should scarcely gather it from the
viii
rendering, which lacks, too, those elements of large
conception and treatment for which we are accus-
tomed to look in Mr. Barnard's work. The span-
drels of the tower have been filled effectively by
Adolph Weinmann ; and numerous niches contain
single statues symbolizing the lakes by Carl E. Tefft,
Henry Baerer, Ralph Goddard, Louis A. Gudebrod,
and J. Massey Rhind. Surmounting the structure,
385 feet above the level and itself another 25 feet
high, is the Goddess of Light, by Herbert Adams,—
a winged figure poised on the right foot, the left leg
carried back, the left arm extended downwards, the
right upraised. It is a conception of grace and
animation that forms a beautiful finial to the majestic
dignity of the structure.
While the above notes by no means exhaust the
tale of sculptural effects, they have touched upon
the most prominent ones, prepared for the occasion.
At vantage points about the grounds will be found
the General Washington by Daniel C. French and
E. C. Potter, the original of which stands in the
Place d’Kna in Paris; Charles Grey Barnard’s Pan,
and C. E. Dallin’s Medicine Man, both exhibited at
the Exposition of 1900 ; and the General Sherman,
the latest work of Augustus St. Gaudens, and prob-
ably the noblest yet produced in this country.
There can be no need to redescribe it, but to see it
again is to fall as readily as before under the spell
ot its exalted spirit and splendid mingling of un-
subduable energy and profound control.
Inside the Art Palace, at the entrance to which
are two fine animal studies by Eli Harvey, will be
found St. Gaudens’ Angel, and amongst many of
his bas-reliefs, the large one of Stevenson so per-
suasively beautiful in the subtle refinement of its
lines and planes. William Couper is represented
by his Reading Angel; Charles Grafly, by several
compositions, including that very impressive one,
the Vulture of War; R. E. Brooks, by a strong
and manly figure of General Cass ; Paul W. Bartlett,
by a copy of the Michel Angelo and a study for the
Lafayette statue ; F. Edwin Elwell, by a Dancing
Girl; John Gelert, by The Little Architect; and
Daniel C. French by his figures for the Hunt Me-
morial. There is a group of Indian subjects by
Frederic Remington, and examples of kindred sub-
jects by that clever and original sculptor, Solon H.
Borglum. These are some of the exhibits that
attracted one’s notice; but at the time of writing
the display is not completely installed, and a
comprehensive survey is impossible. But evidently
the selection has been made with admirable dis-
cretion.