:Daniel Chester French

{{Short description|American sculptor (1850–1931)}}

{{Use American English|date = February 2020}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Daniel Chester French

| image = Daniel Chester French 1902 crop.jpg

| imagesize =

| alt =

| caption = French in 1902

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1850|4|20|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Exeter, New Hampshire, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1931|10|7|1850|4|12|mf=y}}

| death_place = Stockbridge, Massachusetts, U.S.

| field = Sculpture

| movement = American Renaissance

| works = Abraham Lincoln

| patrons = Hiram Powers, Thomas Ball

| influenced =

| awards =

| elected =

| website =

| education = Massachusetts Institute of Technology (no degree)

}}

File:America, Daniel Chester French.jpg at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City]]

Daniel Chester French (April 20, 1850 – October 7, 1931) was an American sculptor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His works include The Minute Man, an 1874 statue in Concord, Massachusetts, and his 1920 monumental statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Early life and education

French was born on April 20, 1850, in Exeter, New Hampshire, the son of Anne Richardson (1811–1856), daughter of William Merchant Richardson (1774–1838), chief justice of New Hampshire, and of Henry Flagg French (1813–1885), a lawyer, judge, Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary, and author of a book that described the French drain.{{cite book|last=French |first=Henry F.|title=Farm drainage: the principles, processes, and effects of draining land with stones, wood, plows, and open ditches, and especially with tiles|url=https://archive.org/details/farmdrainageprin00frenrich |location=New York |publisher=Orange Judd & Company|year=1859|ref=French, 1859}} His siblings were Henriette Van Mater French Hollis (1839–1911), Sarah Flagg French Bartlett (1846–1883), and William M.R. French (1843–1914). He was the uncle of Senator Henry F. Hollis.{{cite journal|title=French, Daniel Chester|journal=Men of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries|year=1908|volume= 1|pages= 924|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94kmAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA924|last1=Leonard|first1=John W.}}

In 1867, French moved with his family to Concord, Massachusetts,{{Cite NIE|wstitle=French, Daniel Chester|year=1905}} where he 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 Abigail May Alcott.

French's early education included training in anatomy with William Rimmer and in drawing with William Morris Hunt. French spent a year studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and also several years in Florence, Italy, studying in the studio of Thomas Ball.

Career

File:Daniel Chester French in his New York studio.jpg

Image:HBaconChesterwood.jpg in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, French's summer home, studio, and gardens, now a National Trust for Historic Preservation site]]

French first earned acclaim for The Minute Man, commissioned by the town of Concord, Massachusetts, which was unveiled April 19, 1875, on the centenary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first armed conflict of the American Revolutionary War.

French established his own studio, first in Washington, D.C., which he later moved to Boston and then to New York City. In 1893, French's reputation grew with his Statue of the Republic for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Other works by French include the First Division Monument and the Butt-Millet Memorial Fountain, both in Washington, D.C., John Harvard on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, bronze doors for the Boston Public Library in Boston, and Four Continents at the U.S. Custom House, New York, later renamed the Alexander Hamilton US Custom House. In addition to the Lincoln Memorial, French collaborated with architect Henry Bacon on memorials around the country, including the Dupont Circle fountain in Washington, D.C.

In 1893, French was a founding member of the National Sculpture Society, and he was appointed a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1913.{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter F|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterF.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=April 7, 2011}} During this time, he served as an instructor at the Art Students League of New York, teaching sculpture there in 1890 and 1898.{{cite web|title=Daniel Chester French (1850–1931)|date=June 2010 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fren/hd_fren.htm|access-date=December 22, 2023}}{{Cite Instagram |author=The Art Students League of NY|user=aslny|postid=CrRiJltMQ_1|date=April 21, 2023 |title=Happy birthday to League artist Daniel Chester French (1850—1931) best known for creating the Lincoln Memorial.|language=English|access-date=December 22, 2023|link=https://www.instagram.com/p/CrRiJltMQ_1/}} French also became a member of the National Academy of Design (1901), the American Academy of Arts and Letters (which awarded him the Gold Medal for Sculpture in 1917), the Architectural League, and the Accademia di San Luca, of Rome. He was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and a co-founder of the American Academy in Rome. He was a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor and was awarded a medal of honor from the Paris Exposition of 1900; he also was granted honorary degrees from Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, and Columbia universities. He was a founding member of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, serving from 1910 to 1915, including as chairman from 1912 to 1915.Luebke, Thomas E., ed., Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 544.

In 1917, French and a colleague, Henry Augustus Lukeman, designed the Pulitzer Prize gold medal presented to laureates. French designed the side of the prize with Benjamin Franklin on it, while Lukeman created the iconic design of the printing press and the wording on the award: "For disinterested and meritorious public service rendered by an American newspaper during the year….".{{cite journal |last=Homren |first=Wayne |date=April 11, 2004 |title=Pulitzer Secrets Revealed |journal=The E-Sylum |volume= 7 |issue= 15, art. 5 |url=http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v07n15a05.html |access-date=July 1, 2007}} In collaboration with Edward Clark Potter he modeled the George Washington statue, commissioned by a group that called itself "The Association of American Women for the Erection of a Statue of Washington in Paris" and unveiled in the Place d'Iena in Paris, France, in 1900; the General Grant statue in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, commissioned by the Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association);{{cite book|last=Bach|first=Penny|title=Public Art in Philadelphia|publisher=Temple University Press| location = Philadelphia, PA | year = 1992| isbn = 0-87722-822-1|page=208}} and the equestrian statue of Joseph Hooker in Boston.

French was one of many sculptors who frequently employed Audrey Munson as a model; another frequent sitter was Hettie Anderson. Together with Walter Leighton Clark and others, he was also one of the founders of the Berkshire Playhouse,{{cite web|url=http://www.berkshireweb.com/culture/index.html|title=Arts & Entertainment In The Berkshires|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090628090109/http://www.berkshireweb.com/culture/index.html|archive-date=June 28, 2009}} which later became the Berkshire Theatre Festival. French's daughter, Margaret, also occasionally modeled for him, including for some of his rare portrait paintings, and became famous in her own right as a sculptor under the name Margaret French Cresson.

In 1917, Harvard's citation in conferring an honorary Master of Arts referred to his statue of Emerson{{clarify|date=October 2012}}{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uibPAAAAMAAJ|title=Harvard Alumni Bulletin|date=January 1, 1916|publisher=Harvard Bulletin, Incorporated|via=Google Books}} when it called him "a sculptor, whose skillful hand, unlike that of the friend whom he portrayed, has not been stopped but spared to adorn our land by the creation of his art".Callan, Richard L. [http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1984/4/28/100-dears-of-solitude-pthe-john/ 100 Years of Solitude: John Harvard Finishes His First Century]. The Harvard Crimson. April 28, 1984. Retrieved October 13, 2012[https://books.google.com/books?id=uibPAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA740&dq=daniel%20chester%20french Harvard Alumni Bulletin v.19] French also taught; among his pupils was the sculptor Edith Howland.{{cite book|author1=Jules Heller|author2=Nancy G. Heller|title=North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYxmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR11|date=December 19, 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-63882-5}}

Death

French died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1931 at age 81, and was interred in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord."[https://newenglandtravelplanner.com/go/ma/boston_west/concord/sights/dc_french_grave.html#:~:text=The%20grave%20of%20the%20great,from%20his%20poignant%20Melvin%20Memorial. Grave of Daniel Chester French]", New England Travel Planner; accessed 2023.06.29.

Legacy

Works

{{See also|Public sculptures by Daniel Chester French}}

=Public monuments=

Image:Lincoln statue.jpg (1920) at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.]]

Image:Minute Man, Daniel Chester French, Concord MA.jpg (1874) in Concord, Massachusetts]]

File:2014 Columbia University Alma Mater closeup.jpg (1903) at Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City]]

Gallery

File:John Harvard statue.jpg|John Harvard (1884), Harvard Yard at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

File:Memory, (front) by Daniel Chester French.png|Memory, Metropolitan Museum of Art

File:2004-08-08 1580x2800 chicago republic.jpg|Statue of The Republic, (1893, reduced vers. 1918), Chicago

File:Oreillymemorial.jpg|John Boyle O'Reilly Memorial (1897), Boston, Massachusetts

File:Central Park NYC - Richard Morris Hunt Memorial by Daniel Chester French - IMG 5761.JPG|Architecture (1901), Richard Morris Hunt Memorial

File:Commodore George Hamilton Perkins crop.jpg|Statue of George H. Perkins (1902), New Hampshire State House, Concord, New Hampshire

File:Civil War Monument to Melvin Brothers, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, MA - March 2016.JPG|Melvin Memorial (1908), Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts

File:Fountain at Dupont Circle.JPG|Dupont Circle Fountain (1921), Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.

File:RussellAlgersfoundGCircParkdetroit.jpg|Russell A. Alger Fountain (1921), Detroit, Michigan

File:Lady Wisconsin.jpg|Wisconsin (1920), Wisconsin Capitol Building, Madison, Wisconsin

File:Westinghouse Plaque Schenley Park.JPG|Westinghouse Memorial (1930), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

File:George Westinghouse Memorial2.jpg|American Youth, Westinghouse Memorial (1930), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

File:Jurisprudence by DC French.jpg|Jurisprudence, Federal Building, (1910) Cleveland, Ohio

File:P1058695a.jpg|The Spirit of Life (1915), Congress Park, Saratoga Springs, NY

File:EB1911 Plate VI. v24, pg.507, Fig 2.jpg|Indian Corn
(Bull by Edward Clark Potter)

=Architectural sculpture=

File:Death and the sculptor.jpg (1893) in Boston]]

File:Thomas and Alice, Gallaudet University.jpg and Alice Cogswell (1889) at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.]]

File:2010 Appellate courthouse Daniel Chester French Justice.jpg in Manhattan.]]

File:Law PnP French Philly.JPG([http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!15620~!0 Law, Prosperity, and Power, SIRIS])]]

=Cemetery monuments=

File:Angel of Peace by Daniel Chester French.jpg at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts]]

=Selected museum pieces=

= Miscellaneous pieces and works about French =

  • Daniel Chester French: American Sculptor: 2022 documentary film by Eduardo Montes-Bradley
  • The Chicago Incendiary: edition of a small bisque statuette depicting the cow alleged to have started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871
  • The Minute Man: depicted on a US postage stamp issued in 1925, commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord
  • Bust of John Brewster, who endowed Brewster Academy in 1887.{{Cite web|title = Lake Winnipesaukee Historical Society|url = http://www.lwhs.us/wolf-brewsterestablishment.htm|website = www.lwhs.us|access-date = February 9, 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170311175946/http://www.lwhs.us/wolf-brewsterestablishment.htm|archive-date = March 11, 2017|url-status = dead}}

File:Lexington Concord-5c.jpg|Daniel Chester French's The Minute Man depicted on US Postage Stamp, 1925 Issue, 5¢

Image:Daniel Chester French 1940 Issue-5c.jpg|{{center|Daniel Chester French
Issue of 1940}}

References

; Citations

{{Reflist}}

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 into Fame: The Life of Daniel Chester French, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1947
  • Dearinger, David, Daniel Chester French: The Female Form Revealed, Boston Athenaeum, 2016
  • 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
  • Tolles, Thayer. [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fren/hd_fren.htm "Daniel Chester French (1850–1931)"]. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (June 2010)
  • Wilson, Susan, Garden of Memorials: A Guide to Historic Forest Hills, Forest Hills Educational Trust