DOI Heft:
No. 160 (July, 1906)
DOI Artikel:Charles Henry Niehaus A. N.A., american sculptor
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20715#0125
Charles Henry Niehaus, Sculptor
CHARLES HENRY NIEHAUS
A.N.A., AMERICAN SCULPTOR.
“ No more is it given to man to create—only to
re-create—to know that human hands have fashioned
images out of day and gods have come to dwell
therein
It is only within the last quarter of a century
CHARLES H. NIEHAUS FROM A PHOTOGRAPH
that there can be said to have existed a representa-
tive art expression in America, and it is not so
long ago as that since there has been a sculpture
worthy the name. True, we have had painters who
have interwoven their talents, with the earliest
history of the country, and in the remote interiors
now and then a chance connoisseur finds intrinsic
treasures in oil portraits whose preservation is due
to a personal sentiment that has survived long after
the glory and the fortunes of the family have fled.
But these are rare and of unique history. The
few artists who left these treasures were unknown
and unsung, and as unconscious of their natural
gifts as the people about them were untutored in
art. The limitations of sculpture have not left us
even these sporadic records. What few we know
of lived in the nineteenth century and reflected a
European influence : Crawford, whose work on our
national Capitol still holds its own with contem-
porary plastic achievements; Powers, whose fame
lay in a confessedly antique inspiration; and Story,
better known, perhaps, as a litterateur, who lived
and worked abroad. Such were the noted fore-
runners of the interesting body of men who to-day
share the honours of their profession with the
sculptors of the Old World, and whose honourable
distinctions come chiefly from the academies, salons,
and governments of Europe. The interval between
them and the sculptors of the present day was filled
with interesting though not especially notable talent:
Rogers, whose genre subjects and groups were of
popular domestic appreciation; Ward, whose
Indian hunter in Central Park, New York, was a
pioneer effort in using our picturesque native
ADMIRAL FARAGUT BY C. H. NIEHAUS
104
CHARLES HENRY NIEHAUS
A.N.A., AMERICAN SCULPTOR.
“ No more is it given to man to create—only to
re-create—to know that human hands have fashioned
images out of day and gods have come to dwell
therein
It is only within the last quarter of a century
CHARLES H. NIEHAUS FROM A PHOTOGRAPH
that there can be said to have existed a representa-
tive art expression in America, and it is not so
long ago as that since there has been a sculpture
worthy the name. True, we have had painters who
have interwoven their talents, with the earliest
history of the country, and in the remote interiors
now and then a chance connoisseur finds intrinsic
treasures in oil portraits whose preservation is due
to a personal sentiment that has survived long after
the glory and the fortunes of the family have fled.
But these are rare and of unique history. The
few artists who left these treasures were unknown
and unsung, and as unconscious of their natural
gifts as the people about them were untutored in
art. The limitations of sculpture have not left us
even these sporadic records. What few we know
of lived in the nineteenth century and reflected a
European influence : Crawford, whose work on our
national Capitol still holds its own with contem-
porary plastic achievements; Powers, whose fame
lay in a confessedly antique inspiration; and Story,
better known, perhaps, as a litterateur, who lived
and worked abroad. Such were the noted fore-
runners of the interesting body of men who to-day
share the honours of their profession with the
sculptors of the Old World, and whose honourable
distinctions come chiefly from the academies, salons,
and governments of Europe. The interval between
them and the sculptors of the present day was filled
with interesting though not especially notable talent:
Rogers, whose genre subjects and groups were of
popular domestic appreciation; Ward, whose
Indian hunter in Central Park, New York, was a
pioneer effort in using our picturesque native
ADMIRAL FARAGUT BY C. H. NIEHAUS
104