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Daniel Chester French
Signature, Daniel C. French
Daniel Chester French on a U.S. Postal Service stamp
Chesterwood in Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Daniel Chester French (April 20, 1850 – October 7, 1931) was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Contents

Biography

French was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, to Henry Flagg French, a lawyer, Assistant US Treasury Secretary and author of a book that described the French drain.1 Daniel Chester French was a neighbor and friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the Alcott family. His decision to pursue sculpting was influenced by Louisa May Alcott's sister May Alcott.

After a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, French worked on his father's farm. While visiting relatives in Brooklyn, New York City, he spent a month in the studio of John Quincy Adams Ward, then began to work on commissions, and at the age of twenty-three received from the town of Concord, Massachusetts, an order for his well-known statue The Minute Man, which was unveiled April 19, 1875 on the centenary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Previously French had gone to Florence, Italy, where he spent a year working with sculptor Thomas Ball.

In 1917, he designed the Pulitzer Prize gold medal presented to laureates.2

In collaboration with Edward Clark Potter he modelled the George Washington statue, presented to France by the Daughters of the American Revolution; the General Grant in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and the General Joseph Hooker statue in Boston.

In 1893, French was a founding member of the National Sculpture Society, and he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. French also became a member of the National Academy of Design (1901), the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Sculpture Society, the Architectural League, and the Accademia di San Luca, of Rome. French was one of many sculptors who frequently employed Audrey Munson as a model.

In 1940, French was selected as one of five artists to be honored in the 35-stamp "Famous Americans" series. 3

French was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts after his death in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 1931 at age 81.

Chesterwood, French's summer home, studio, (designed by his architect friend and frequent collaborator Henry Bacon) and garden is now a museum.

Work

Notable public monuments


Concord Minute Man, Concord, Massachusetts.

Alma Mater on the campus of Columbia University in New York, NY.

The Spirit of Life,
Saratoga, New York.

Republic, 1918 reduced version, Chicago.

August Meyer Memorial, on The Paseo in Kansas City, Missouri.

Architectural sculpture

thumb|Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

Cemetery monuments

Marshall Field Memorial, Chicago.

Russell A. Alger Fountain in Detroit, Michigan.

Marquis de Lafayette statue at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Selected museum pieces

References

  1. ^ Flagg, Henry F. Farm drainage : the principles, processes, and effects of draining land with stones, wood, plows, and open ditches, and especially with tiles. New York : Orange Judd & Company, 1859.
  2. ^ Homren, Wayne (11 Apr 2004). "Pulitzer Secrets Revealed". The E-Sylum Vol. 7 (no. 15, art. 5), http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v07n15a05.html. Retrieved on 1 July 2007. 
  3. ^ http://www.1847usa.com/identify/YearSets/FamousAmericans.htm
  4. ^ Chicago Landmarks | Statue of The Republic at www.ci.chi.il.us
  5. ^ Ramsey Al-Rikabi (2007-06-12). "Seward's bust gets busted". Times Herald-Record. Retrieved on 2007-06-30.

Further reading

  • Buck, Diane M. and Virginia A. Palmer, Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: A Cultural and Historical Guidebook, The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1995
  • Caffin, Charles H., American Masters of Sculpture, Doubleday, Page & Company, New York 1913
  • Caffin, in International Studio, volumes xx (1903), lx (1910), and lxvi (1912)
  • Carlock, Marty, A Guide to Public Art in Greater Boston from Newburyport to Plymouth, The Harvard Common Press, Boston Massachusetts, 1988
  • Chesterwood Archives, Geographical List of Works: DRAFT, unpublished manuscript, April 14, 1993
  • Coughlan, in Magazine of Art (1901)
  • Craven, Wayne, Sculpture in America, Thomas Y. Crowell Co, NY, NY 1968
  • Cresson, Margaret French, Journey in Fame: The Life of Daniel Chaster French, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1947
  • Hucke, Matt and Ursela Bielski, Graveyards of Chicago: the People, History, Art and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries, Lake Claremont Press, Chicago, 1999
  • Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture in America
  • Lanctot, Barbara, A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery, Chicago Architectural Foundation, Chicago, Illinois, 1988
  • Richman, Michael, Daniel Chester French: An American Sculptor, The Preservation Press, Washington D.C., 1976
  • Taft, Lorado, The History of American Sculpture, MacMillan Co., New York, NY 1925
  • Wilson, Susan, Garden of Memorias: A Guide to Historic Forest Hills, Forest Hills Educational Trust

External links
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