DOI Heft:
Nr. 161 (July, 1910)
DOI Artikel:Morris, Harrison S.: R. Tait McKenzie, sculptor and anatomist
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19867#0110
Sculpture by R. Tait McKenzie
DUDLEY ALLEX BY e. TAIT m'kENZIE
SARGENT
hastily educated Americans, wants solid information
as its alloy more than all else.
Thus Dr. McKenzie became a sculptor, and so
grew up the Sprinter. If you look at this statue
THE JUGGLER BY R. TAIT M'kENZIE
XII
once it may not arrest your eye; if you look at it
twice it will. There is here the unmistakable prin-
ciple of beauty—a name I give to that which dwells
in the soul of all art, even though its externals be
open to the fluctuating opinion of fashion. There
must be inherent beauty or art is defeated—dead.
The Athlete seems to me, thus far, Dr. McKen-
zie's most conspicuous work. Observe the flowing
lines, that aim to imprison an ideal meaning; the
deliberate movement, such as all moving or arrested
objects in nature express; the light and shade so
justly distributed and the character suffusing all.
Dr. McKenzie's output since these earlier achieve-
ments has been varied: there are statuettes, plaques,
medals and groups. Whether the enduring graces
of the first two slow-growing and hastily evolved
figures are to be maintained must be a question for
years to come.
The Boxer holds its own by lithe and flowing lines
and originality of conception, which shows an inde-
pendent treatment of the human figure and a mas-
tery of technical anatomy. This little statuette,
with its large view of life, is, to my thinking, most
valuable for those elements which the mind dwells
on with a certain thrill of pleasure—the attempt to
give plastic permanence to the artist's conception of
ideal manhood in its physical as well as in its mental
strength.
Of the Juggler and the Competitor I cannot speak
with such confidence, because these statuettes em-
body poses that are not so familiar to the non-tech-
nical eye. In them, perhaps, the director of physi-
cal education is a bit more apparent than the seeker
for beauty. The rare balance of qualities—of sen-
suous joy in the grace of human life, with the criti-
cal and statistical sense of the physician—which is
evident in the earlier work, does not make itself so
apparent in poses unfamiliar to the lay vision.
Four striking and quite uncommon ''masks,-'
which picture Violent Effort, Fatigue, Breathless-
ness ami Exhaustion, have for me the same limita-
tions. I must class them as experimental work,
kindred with that of Lavater, and while we know
that such attempts do not produce enduring art, yet
we must treat with sincere respect what has been
evolved with so sincere a purpose.
A phase of sculpture that has attracted Dr. Mi -
Kenzie, wholly on the artistic side, is low relief. He
has done n s^reat deal in this fascinating branch of
art, and has done it well.
Perhaps the leading example of his work in this
field is the Charles Brockden Brown, an oblong
plaque modeled as a memorial of the early Ameri-
can novelist for the portraits of civic worthies in the
DUDLEY ALLEX BY e. TAIT m'kENZIE
SARGENT
hastily educated Americans, wants solid information
as its alloy more than all else.
Thus Dr. McKenzie became a sculptor, and so
grew up the Sprinter. If you look at this statue
THE JUGGLER BY R. TAIT M'kENZIE
XII
once it may not arrest your eye; if you look at it
twice it will. There is here the unmistakable prin-
ciple of beauty—a name I give to that which dwells
in the soul of all art, even though its externals be
open to the fluctuating opinion of fashion. There
must be inherent beauty or art is defeated—dead.
The Athlete seems to me, thus far, Dr. McKen-
zie's most conspicuous work. Observe the flowing
lines, that aim to imprison an ideal meaning; the
deliberate movement, such as all moving or arrested
objects in nature express; the light and shade so
justly distributed and the character suffusing all.
Dr. McKenzie's output since these earlier achieve-
ments has been varied: there are statuettes, plaques,
medals and groups. Whether the enduring graces
of the first two slow-growing and hastily evolved
figures are to be maintained must be a question for
years to come.
The Boxer holds its own by lithe and flowing lines
and originality of conception, which shows an inde-
pendent treatment of the human figure and a mas-
tery of technical anatomy. This little statuette,
with its large view of life, is, to my thinking, most
valuable for those elements which the mind dwells
on with a certain thrill of pleasure—the attempt to
give plastic permanence to the artist's conception of
ideal manhood in its physical as well as in its mental
strength.
Of the Juggler and the Competitor I cannot speak
with such confidence, because these statuettes em-
body poses that are not so familiar to the non-tech-
nical eye. In them, perhaps, the director of physi-
cal education is a bit more apparent than the seeker
for beauty. The rare balance of qualities—of sen-
suous joy in the grace of human life, with the criti-
cal and statistical sense of the physician—which is
evident in the earlier work, does not make itself so
apparent in poses unfamiliar to the lay vision.
Four striking and quite uncommon ''masks,-'
which picture Violent Effort, Fatigue, Breathless-
ness ami Exhaustion, have for me the same limita-
tions. I must class them as experimental work,
kindred with that of Lavater, and while we know
that such attempts do not produce enduring art, yet
we must treat with sincere respect what has been
evolved with so sincere a purpose.
A phase of sculpture that has attracted Dr. Mi -
Kenzie, wholly on the artistic side, is low relief. He
has done n s^reat deal in this fascinating branch of
art, and has done it well.
Perhaps the leading example of his work in this
field is the Charles Brockden Brown, an oblong
plaque modeled as a memorial of the early Ameri-
can novelist for the portraits of civic worthies in the