International studio (59.1916)

The Sculpture of Daniel Chester French

(1879) that bust of Emerson to which the sage
himself paid the compliment of remarking “That
is the face I shave.”
We shall find in his later work the form of
Emerson to re-appear, robed and seated, the keen
kindly face looking out quietly and steadily on life
and its problems; and this figure, designed for the
Public Library of Concord in 1914, just thirty-five
years later than that earlier bust from the life,
must have been a labour of love, for Mr. French
has spoken to me more than once of the delightful
hours which his earlier life had shared with the
sage of Concord, who seems to have been beloved
by all who knew him in that little New England
community.
In an article published some three years ago
(1913) I endeavoured to press upon public atten-
tion the claims of architectural sculpture. In so
doing I quoted the words of one of our ablest
English architectural sculptors, Mr. Albert Hodge,
who had said in Birmingham “The finest sculp-
ture has been architectural, and has had allotted
to it a part as important to the integrity of the

whole composition as the column and the entabla-
ture”; and I added my own entire support in
these words—“ In America, under the unfavourable
conditions for the plastic arts of a Puritan tradition
and inheritance, the energetic propaganda of one
society has reversed the whole position, and is filling
the United States with architecture and sculpture
wedded into noble harmony.”
It is now before me to illustrate this remark in
the work of Mr. Daniel Chester French, and here
his connection with a brilliant American architect,
Mr. Cass Gilbert, is of first importance. This
connection began, as I believe, with the decorative
work of the Minnesota State Capitol at St. Paul,
that great white marble structure which is due to
Mr. Gilbert’s design and contains figure work by
our artist; and when Mr. Cass Gilbert added to his
earlier successes the New York Customs, it was
Mr. French who was to add to his design those
groups of the four Continents which are its greatest
ornament.
Before coming to these I wish to mention in this
connection the decorative group over the doorway of


SPENCER TRASK MEMORIAL, SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.

HENRY BACON, ARCHITECT; D. C. FRENCH, SCULPTOR