International studio (35.1908)

National Sculpture Society

pearances this work had primarily sculptural con-
ception and did not suggest the probability of hav-
ing been named after being completed. In ad-
dition to these groups Mr. Miller showed a charm-
ing design for a fountain, The Seasons, a statue of
Ishmael, two portrait busts and a panel, Poetry,
for the Concert Hall of the Peabody Institute; and
Mr. Schuler a panel, Music, for the same hall, two
figures, Memory and The Life of Man Is but as the
Turning of a Leaf, for tombs, as well as several
portraits and some miscellaneous objects. The
third of the trio, Mr. Edward Berge, contributed,
among other things, a cast in plaster of a Muse
Finding the Head of Orpheus and a small bronze,
The Scalp, an Indian standing above his victim
holding the bloody trophy triumphantly aloft.
Both of these suggested in a measure the influence
of Rodin, but were at the same time vigorous and
personal.
It was interesting to note how frequently the
American Indian had been taken as a model—how
well, if unwittingly, he had served the American
sculptor. Perhaps the first work produced in this
country which manifested an inclination to let go
Old World ideals and build up a national tradition
was J. Q. A. Ward’s Indian Hunter, completed in
1857, and now in Central Park, New York; and,
though one may resent the supposition that the
Indian alone stands for Americanism, it must be
conceded that if the sculptors of this country had
been indifferent to the factors in native civiliza-
tion, to contemporary thought and life, they would
not have adopted the redman as a theme. To be
sure, some of the Indians in plaster and bronze are
white men masquerading in shallow disguise, and
while picturesque, have no more ethnological value
than the fascinating characters in Cooper’s“Leather
Stocking Tales”; but while this discredits them as
witnesses it does not prevent their acceptance as
works of art.
Mr. H. A. MacNeil’s Coming of the White Man
was an allegory—a pictorial conception given ade-
quate sculptural expression—a work somewhat
florid and yet dignified, lively and at the same time
statuesque. Its handling was fluent—its effect
impressive. In marked contrast was Mr. Daniel
C. French’s entombed Indian—a detail of the
Parkman Monument erected in a suburb of Bos-
ton—which was rendered with measured intellec-
tuality and no show of emotion, but it should be
remarked that the two works were inspired by
widely different motives. Mr. Dallin’s equestrian
statue, The Appeal to the Great Spirit, has already
been mentioned, but not his small models in bronze,

The Protest and War or Peace, both of which were
exceptionally meritorious. Interesting, too, and
commendable were John J. Boyle’s Indian Boy
with Eagle, a kneeling figure showing graceful lines
and skilful modeling; Abastenia St. Leger Eberle’s
Indian Fighting Eagle and Indian Shooting Fish,
both of which were extremely virile; A. Stirling
Calder’s Kill-an-Enemy and Dancing Sioux and
Charles Henry Humphries’s Indian’s Appeal to the
Manitou.
Indicative also of a desire to interpret native
rather than foreign themes, though scarcely to be
classified as imaginative work, were the animal
groups by the late Edward Kemeys, and the cow-
boy bronzes of Solon Borglum. Mr. Kemeys was
one of the pioneers in art, and though he was not a
skilled technician, all of his conceptions were es-
sentially plastic and none of his work is unstudied
or insignificant. He, more than any one else, in-
terpreted the spirit of the wild creatures, and he
has left to the world a record of which the nation
may be proud. Twenty of his best works were
included in the catalogue of the Baltimore exhibi-
tion, one of which was a replica of the Panther and
Cubs, recently purchased by the Metropolitan Mu-
seum for its permanent collection. Mr. Roth,
Mr. Shrady, Mr. Harvey and Miss Hyatt, among
living animal sculptors, were all represented—Miss
Hyatt especially .well by a jaguar, full size, crouch-
ing for a spring. Mr. Borglum’s bronzes, depict-
ing life on the plains, are too well known to need
description, but attention may be drawn to their
unity in composition, their subordination of nar-
rative to art and frank, unaffected rendering.
A spirit of mysticism pervaded the groups in
bronze by Mr. Charles Grafly, whose admirable
portrait busts have already been commented upon
—a mysticism which, while searching in its sig-
nificance, seemed to suggest a kinship with the East.
It is a question whether or not a work of art may
not be too thought-proving, whether, indeed, its
function is not primarily to charm, rather than to
teach. Of course no one wants senseless works,
but, after all, does one desire those that are in-
sistently speculative? No matter how this ques-
tion is answered, none would be inclined to quarrel
with Mr. Grafly for having produced The Symbol
of Life, From Generation to Generation and In
Much Wisdom, so distinctly original are they and
so beautifully rendered. In arrangement of com-
position and manner of expression they suggested
Oriental influence, and both in feeling and finish
savored of a mature civilization. While appealing
to the intellect rather than the senses, they were not

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