DOI Heft:
No. 229 (April 1912)
DOI Artikel:Brinton, Selwyn John Curwen: An american sculptor: Daniel Chester French
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21156#0235
Daniel Chester French
this,” this sculptor writes, “that I have not been
entirely idle since I saw you”; and he adds : “I
have been very much engrossed these last two
years by a statue of Lincoln, which I have jus t
completed in clay, and which is destined for the
City of Lincoln, Nebraska. It will be erected
next spring. My artist friends and the public
generally seem to think this is my high-water mark,
and I think pretty well of it myself.” As this
statue is not yet unveiled it cannot be included
among our illustrations.
A word now on Mr. French’s position in
modem American art. Since the great impulse
towards the decorative and plastic arts in America
has come within his full lifetime, his influence
has been as wide as I think it is wholly beneficial.
I believe this to be true, technically, because
his work is throughout sound, anatomically correct,
214
free, loose, bold in modelling, virile in its touch
of material and grasp of subject. I believe it to
be true, immaterially and spiritually, because it
would have been so easy for the nascent sculpture
of America to be swamped by the marvellous tech-
nique and great tradition of Paris.
Mr. French has pointed to America the path
of her own peculiar genius in the plastic arts.
Through a long and splendid career he has stood
firm and without compromise against any lowering
of the flag, any smirching of the ideal; and in so
doing he has rendered his country an inestimable
service. S. B.
MARBLE FIGURE FOR MINNESOTA STATE CAMTOL. BY
DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH
“MOURNING VICTORY” (MELVIN MEMORIAL, SLEEPY
HOLLOW). BY DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH
this,” this sculptor writes, “that I have not been
entirely idle since I saw you”; and he adds : “I
have been very much engrossed these last two
years by a statue of Lincoln, which I have jus t
completed in clay, and which is destined for the
City of Lincoln, Nebraska. It will be erected
next spring. My artist friends and the public
generally seem to think this is my high-water mark,
and I think pretty well of it myself.” As this
statue is not yet unveiled it cannot be included
among our illustrations.
A word now on Mr. French’s position in
modem American art. Since the great impulse
towards the decorative and plastic arts in America
has come within his full lifetime, his influence
has been as wide as I think it is wholly beneficial.
I believe this to be true, technically, because
his work is throughout sound, anatomically correct,
214
free, loose, bold in modelling, virile in its touch
of material and grasp of subject. I believe it to
be true, immaterially and spiritually, because it
would have been so easy for the nascent sculpture
of America to be swamped by the marvellous tech-
nique and great tradition of Paris.
Mr. French has pointed to America the path
of her own peculiar genius in the plastic arts.
Through a long and splendid career he has stood
firm and without compromise against any lowering
of the flag, any smirching of the ideal; and in so
doing he has rendered his country an inestimable
service. S. B.
MARBLE FIGURE FOR MINNESOTA STATE CAMTOL. BY
DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH
“MOURNING VICTORY” (MELVIN MEMORIAL, SLEEPY
HOLLOW). BY DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH