DOI issue:
No. 279 (June 1916)
DOI article:Brinton, Selwyn John Curwen: The recent sculpture of Daniel Chester French
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21262#0044
The Sculpture of Daniel Chester French
KINSLEY MEMORIAL, WOODLAND CEMETERY, NEW YORK D. C. FRENCH, SCUM'TOR ; HENRY BACON, ARCHITECT
but she is a remarkable woman, and it was she there are many works of interest which I have to
who suggested that I should make a statue repre- pass by or merely indicate : the lovely adolescent
senting The Spirit oj Life. As she said, I had girl guided by her " Alma Mater" in the group of
already made The Angel of Death, and why not VVellesley College, the Longfellow Memorial (Cam-
the reverse, which was what her husband had stood bridge, Mass. 1914) with in relief behind it the
for ? Water flows from the bowl which the figure line of figures from the poet's imaginings—Miles
holds in her hand, and gushes from the rock Standish, Sandalphon, Evangeline, Hiawatha—
beneath her feet. It is rare that a fountain has the Genius of Creation, brooding with outspread
any water, but in this case there is an unlimited wings, while beneath are emergent the naked forms
supply, and perfectly clear sparkling water at that." of youth and maid (Panama-Pacific Exposition,
The Angel of Death—to which Mr. French 1915), the noble seated figure of Sculpture of the
alludes here—is of course his famous shadowy same year for the St. Louis Art Museum,
form arresting the sculptor's hand in the Milmore In these last he has treated the human form with
Memorial at Boston ; and the reader will find The the same breadth and dignity as we have found in
Spirit of Life as well as its architectural and land- the Nubian Sleeper or the Victory of the Melvin
scape setting at Saratoga Springs here illustrated. Memorial. Life and Death—great ideas, great
Personally I consider this figure of Life as one of characters who stand in history for ideas—the
the most beautiful imagined in the sculpture of splendid sense of beneficent life, or the sorrow for
our time. She is buoyant, she almost floats, and heroic death, these and such as these form the
radiates vitality; and the setting compels the under-current of his inspiration : such an inspira-
highest praise to Mr. Bacon and Mr. Leavitt. tion as could do justice (if any could) to the issues
This is an appreciation, not a catalogue, and and silent wounds of this fateful war.
24
KINSLEY MEMORIAL, WOODLAND CEMETERY, NEW YORK D. C. FRENCH, SCUM'TOR ; HENRY BACON, ARCHITECT
but she is a remarkable woman, and it was she there are many works of interest which I have to
who suggested that I should make a statue repre- pass by or merely indicate : the lovely adolescent
senting The Spirit oj Life. As she said, I had girl guided by her " Alma Mater" in the group of
already made The Angel of Death, and why not VVellesley College, the Longfellow Memorial (Cam-
the reverse, which was what her husband had stood bridge, Mass. 1914) with in relief behind it the
for ? Water flows from the bowl which the figure line of figures from the poet's imaginings—Miles
holds in her hand, and gushes from the rock Standish, Sandalphon, Evangeline, Hiawatha—
beneath her feet. It is rare that a fountain has the Genius of Creation, brooding with outspread
any water, but in this case there is an unlimited wings, while beneath are emergent the naked forms
supply, and perfectly clear sparkling water at that." of youth and maid (Panama-Pacific Exposition,
The Angel of Death—to which Mr. French 1915), the noble seated figure of Sculpture of the
alludes here—is of course his famous shadowy same year for the St. Louis Art Museum,
form arresting the sculptor's hand in the Milmore In these last he has treated the human form with
Memorial at Boston ; and the reader will find The the same breadth and dignity as we have found in
Spirit of Life as well as its architectural and land- the Nubian Sleeper or the Victory of the Melvin
scape setting at Saratoga Springs here illustrated. Memorial. Life and Death—great ideas, great
Personally I consider this figure of Life as one of characters who stand in history for ideas—the
the most beautiful imagined in the sculpture of splendid sense of beneficent life, or the sorrow for
our time. She is buoyant, she almost floats, and heroic death, these and such as these form the
radiates vitality; and the setting compels the under-current of his inspiration : such an inspira-
highest praise to Mr. Bacon and Mr. Leavitt. tion as could do justice (if any could) to the issues
This is an appreciation, not a catalogue, and and silent wounds of this fateful war.
24