International studio (53.1914)

The Emerson Statue by Daniel C. French

THE EMERSON STATUE BY
DANIEL C. FRENCH, SCULPTOR
BY SAMUEL HOWE
The Emerson statue by Mr. French
is said to be a remarkable likeness, revealing not
alone the man but the age which produced him
and the conditions making that type of man
valuable to a critical community. In other
words, this is not simply an adventure in marble
nor a portrayal more or less revealing the psychol-
ogy of the man, but it invites a more exalted criti-
cism because it in the natural alertness of his posi-
tion here shows the analytical, argumentative,
weighing, as well as clarifying ability, which is so
indicative of the time in which he lived. He wrote
once: “The world is governed too much,” and I
venture to think that were we so fortunate as to
have his opinion of this illuminating sketch by Mr.
French we should find in it much that he liked,
because there is in the sketch that which evidently
has not been governed by academic precedent, for
this is no pose, no man sitting in a chair looking
thoughtful, but a man eager to learn, forever the
student of life.
How did he do it? is the natural question we ask.
By what authority do you speak? has often been
put prior even to Biblical times. This is not sim-
ply a memory of a big man wherein daguerreo-
types, photographs, pencil sketches and the con-
fidential advice of personal friends play a part.
This statue is the product of an unusually attrac-
tive condition of things. Mr. French was a neigh-
bour, a fellow-citizen with the philosopher, living
near-by in Concord, and seeing the big man every
few days, knowing him, in fact, as far as a young
man may be said to know a middle-aged personal-
ity of whom everyone is talking, and to whom
even the most able look with reverence; and the
young sculptor was honoured with a criticism.
The work was worthy, was it not? In his own
inimitable manner, the philosopher said on one
occasion, “The trouble is the more it resembles me
the worse it looks,” and again, “That is the face
that I shave.” The love of quiet banter, the
humour of the philosopher wherein he instilled into
his thought the ability to assign to each section of
the problem its due value, is shown in the comment
he made at one time of the work of a brother sculp-
tor: “It looks as harmless as a parsnip.”
Again the sculptor has contrived to present the
illuminating quality of the face and its manner of
lighting up when interested in any subject, and
what subject is there that Emerson failed to find of

interest. With the enthusiast’s love for truth he
has moulded carefully the features, the bones are
here and the hollows, the projections are almost
brutal in detail at times, and yet forever softened
by the spirit within. Yes, the sculptor also has
objected to the limitations of academic precedent
and has here given a picturesque abandon in the
pose strangely natural, and an eagerness in press-
ing the position of the head forward characteristic
of the man; this is an innovation in a statue which
demands primarily the grandly heroic attitude.
This is a revelation of the quintessence of life.
We all know that to Emerson sculpture was
history. The history of this revelation of the
philosopher is that it began, some thirty-five years
ago with a sketch of which we have an admirable
criticism, and that since then the distinguished
sculptor has had the benefit of examining closely
the illuminating photographs by Hawes, of Bos-
ton, who photographed all the distinguished liter-
ary men of that time, and in addition to his own
sketches in clay and wax he has had the writings
of the man to revivify his memory, and we see
what admirable use he l as made of the occasion.

THE CHICAGO SOCIETY OF ETCHERS

Awarded prize for best etching, in figure
MAN WITH CLOAK BY WILLIAM A. LEVY