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And so the principle underlying the plan of The Mentor Association is one approved and exercised by a nation of intelligent people. How many other people follow this direct and simple path to knowledge we cannot say, but that it is not only the direct and simple way, but the one satisfying and effective way of acquiring knowledge, is plain. On that principle The Mentor Association is founded, and by following that principle, the members of the Association can add day by day to their store of knowledge, and can fully and intelligently enjoy the beautiful things in art.

Famous American Sculptors

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS WARD

Monograph Number One in The Mentor Reading Course

The life of John Quincy Adams Ward was a long record of dignified success. Born in the beginning of the last century, at the time when American sculpture was in a very elementary stage, he lived to see this art mature into something of which our country may well be proud. Quiet simplicity and impressiveness of mass characterize Ward's work. Everything he did was big and effective.

John Quincy Adams Ward was born on June 29, 1830, near Urbana, Ohio. He was a boy that enjoyed play; but he did not neglect his work. He loved the open air. Riding, hunting or fishing--he liked them all. He received his education in the village schools.

One day the young boy found some clay on his father's farm. He took a handful of it and modeled the face of an old negro who lived nearby. Everyone who saw this early attempt said that it was "wonderful." It may have been. At any rate, Ward did not immediately begin to dream of becoming a great sculptor. In this he differed from most beginners whose first work is called great by their friends.

Not until he was nineteen years old did he really find out his destiny. In 1849 he paid a visit to a sister in Brooklyn. One day he happened to pass the studio of the sculptor H. K. Browne. The door of the studio was open, and Ward glanced inside. The scene fascinated him. He returned to the place again and again. Finally he found his way into this world of mystery, and at length by some miracle became one of the sculptor's pupils.

From that time on success was his. He worked hard and conscientiously. His statues of Washington, Beecher, and Horace Greeley are all recognized as great pieces of portrait sculpture. Unlike many of the early sculptors of America, he acquired his training, his inspirations, and his themes from his own country.

When the National Sculpture Society was organized in New York in 1896, Ward was elected to be the first president. He died in New York City on May 1, 1910.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36 COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

Famous American Sculptors

AUGUSTUS SAINT GAUDENS

Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course

St. Gaudens is the name of a little town in the south of France and close to the foot of the Pyrenees. A humble shoemaker named Bernard Paul Ernest dwelt there, and in 1848, after he had moved to Dublin, Ireland, he had a son, to whom he gave the name Augustus. The mother of the boy was a native of Dublin; her maiden name was Mary McGuinness. Such was the origin of a master in sculpture, Augustus Saint Gaudens. His parents came to America when he was an infant, and after a short stay in Boston took up their residence in New York City. Augustus Saint Gaudens attended school until he was thirteen. Then he was apprenticed to a cameo cutter named Avet. After three years' service he left his master and found employment with a shell cameo cutter named Le Breton, with whom he worked for several years. During this time young Saint Gaudens was studying drawing at night; first at Cooper Union, and then for two years at the National Academy of Design.

Augustus Saint Gaudens was always a thoughtful, quiet youth, with extraordinary power of concentration. He pursued the art of modeling with great enthusiasm. It was said of him that his sense of form and of objects in relief was so vivid that with his eyes closed he could fairly "see with his fingers." His cameo cutting naturally assisted him in the perfection of art in high and low relief.

When twenty years old Saint Gaudens was already a well trained artist. He went to Paris and worked in the School of Fine Arts in the studio of M. Jouffroy. There he studied the human figure in all phases, and quickly mastered it. A residence of several years in Italy followed, with constant art activity and steady artistic growth. He came back to the United States in 1874, and his first work was a bust in marble of William M. Evarts. Then came a commission for a large decorative relief for St. Thomas' Church, New York City, and in 1878 he began work on the statue of Admiral Farragut that now stands in Madison Square, New York City, which is one of the most widely known and admired of all his works.

The years that followed were full of distinguished achievements. His "Lincoln," which was unveiled in Lincoln Park, Chicago, in 1887, has been hailed as the greatest portrait statue in the United States.

Saint Gaudens was not only the most skilful of American sculptors, but also the most versatile. This will be appreciated by anyone who looks first at the Farragut statue, then at the severe, imposing character of Deacon Chapin, a statue that is often called "The Puritan." Let him then contrast the stirring Shaw Memorial, on Boston Common, with the strange, mysteriously beautiful figure in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D. C., that has been called variously "Grief," "Death," and "The Peace of God."

Saint Gaudens enjoyed the distinction of being America's leading sculptor for many years before he died. His life was crowned with honors, sweetened by many fine friendships, and enriched and mellowed by broad, liberal, mature art intelligence. He was a great master of art in thought and in expression. He died in New York City in 1907.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36 COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

Famous American Sculptors

DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH

Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course

Nature smiled on Daniel Chester French. All the circumstances of his birth and breeding conspired to help his development. He was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1850. Among many well known relatives he numbered Daniel Webster and John Greenleaf Whittier. His ancestors were men who stood high in the communities in which they lived. His father was a lawyer, a judge, and assistant secretary of the United States treasury. He was always interested in public welfare, and was known for his good taste and good works. His descendants said that he "beautified every place in which he lived."

Daniel Chester French showed ability at an early age, but no particular leaning toward sculpture. He was simply a bright, good-looking boy, with a liking for outdoor life and exercise. One day, when about nineteen years old, during a period of work on his father's farm, he showed his parents a queer figure of a frog that he had cut out of a turnip; "Daniel, there is your career!" were the words that expressed the feelings of both father and mother. The farm was near Concord. There dwelt Miss May Alcott, the "Amy" of "Little Women," and an artist of some ability. She encouraged young French in his study of drawing and modeling, and he plunged into his art career with an enthusiasm that bordered on boyish frenzy. His nature was ardent and poetic, and it carried him into forms of expression that were doomed to disappointment. The best thing for him was a visit that he made to the veteran sculptor J. Q. A. Ward. This took place when he was staying with relatives in Brooklyn, New York, and it opened the boy's eyes to the fuller meaning of sculpture. Months of earnest work followed, during which Daniel French's talents rapidly ripened.

When he was only twenty-three years old he received a commission of real national importance, that of modeling the statue of "The Minute Man." This interesting piece of sculpture, now well known, was unveiled at Concord in 1875. In celebration of it Ralph Waldo Emerson and George William Curtis made speeches, and James Russell Lowell read a poem. At this time Daniel French had sailed for Italy, where he remained for a period in study. In 1879 he modeled a bust of Emerson from life--a work so vivid and lifelike that the poet-philosopher said, "The more it resembles me, the worse it looks," and then added, with a nod of approval, "That is the face that I shave."

French's art took rapid strides. He is known today equally well by his fine portrait busts and his great allegorical compositions. One of the most imposing of his compositions is the great heroic female figure entitled "Alma Mater," seated at the approach to the library of Columbia University, New York. No American sculptor is better known than Mr. French in his home land or abroad. He bears high honors on both continents.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36 COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

Famous American Sculptors

FREDERICK MACMONNIES

Monograph Number Four in The Mentor Reading Course

To many Americans the name of Frederick MacMonnies became known by the imposing Columbian Fountain at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The composition was a majestic barge, on which Columbia sat enthroned on high. At the prow was a fine figure of Fame with trumpet upraised. On the stern Father Time watched the progress of the barge, which was urged on by the oars of eight women of great beauty representing the Arts and Industries. The work had style, and it was also imposing in its massed effect. MacMonnies was only twenty-seven years old when this commission was given to him in 1891. He got it largely through the influence of his instructor, Augustus Saint Gaudens. All the summer of 1893 people were asking about the young sculptor. They found that he was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1863, of Scottish parentage. He came by an art inheritance from one of his parents at least,--his mother, Juliana Eudora West, a niece of the famous early American painter, Benjamin West.

Frederick MacMonnies had to leave school when a mere boy and earn his living as clerk in a jewelry store. He found time to study there, and when he was sixteen years old he attracted the notice of Saint Gaudens, who took him into his studio as an apprentice. That was the beginning of MacMonnies' fame. He could scarcely realize at that age what a few years' training under Saint Gaudens would mean. He worked hard in the studio and in the classes of the Academy of Design and Art Students' League; so that when in 1884 he was able to go abroad he had a ground knowledge of modeling that fitted him to make the most of his study in foreign schools. He had been in the fullest sense "put in right" by Saint Gaudens. Through all the years of his study he had the advantage of close, familiar association with the greatest artists of this country and some of those abroad. MacMonnies went at once to Paris and joined the School of Fine Arts, where he made friends, and his progress was rapid. Back and forth he went during the next few years, from Paris to New York, according as his means and his plans of work required.

He got his first commission in 1889,--an order for three life-sized angel figures in bronze for Saint Paul's Church, New York City. This brought him commendation, and, with the help of the great Saint Gaudens, other commissions were placed in his hands, notably the Nathan Hale statue, which stands in City Hall Park, New York City, and the portrait statue of James S. T. Stranahan of Brooklyn. These works preceded the Columbian Fountain, and since MacMonnies' name has come to be known they are counted among his most admired creations.

In 1894 the famous Bacchante appeared,--the dancing, laughing girl that attracted so much public comment for a time.

Mr. MacMonnies is known by many figures and compositions in public places, notably the groups in bronze of the Army and the Navy on the Brooklyn Memorial Arch at the entrance to Prospect Park.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36 COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

Famous American Sculptors

GEORGE GREY BARNARD

Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course

Success is deserved by hard work, although it does not always follow. But in the case of George Grey Barnard hard work combined with genius made him one of the great sculptors of America, and one of whom this country may well be proud.

George Grey Barnard was born at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, on May 24, 1863. His father was a clergyman at Muscatine, Iowa, where the sculptor passed his boyhood. He delighted in stuffing the skins of birds and animals, and became quite an expert taxidermist. He also liked to model animals; and a bust of his little sister convinced his family that he should turn his talents to some trade in which he could make a good living.

So he became apprentice to an engraver. Later he moved to Chicago. Here it was that the first desire to become a sculptor entered his mind. For a long time he debated the question. If he remained at his trade, he could rest assured of a good income all his life; while if he decided to study sculpture, he would practically have to starve for a few years.

At last he entered the Art Institute of Chicago. He had been there about a year and a half, when a bust of a little girl brought him three hundred and fifty dollars. He decided to go to Paris on this small sum. He set off in 1883, and began study in the Atelier Cavelier of the Beaux Arts.

Barnard worked hard, and denied himself all the luxuries, and even many of the necessities of life. His first year in Paris cost him just eighty-nine dollars, so it can be imagined what self-denial the young man must have practised for the sake of his art. Barnard took life seriously; but he never complained.

His first noteworthy production was "The Boy," which he finished in marble in 1885. The following year he made a heroic-sized statue of Cain, which he afterward destroyed. "Brotherly Love," a tombstone executed at the order of a Norwegian, he modeled in 1887. This was the best thing he had done up to that time.

Other works followed in rapid succession,--"The Two Natures," in the Metropolitan Museum of New York City; "The Norwegian Stove," an allegorical fireplace; "The God Pan," in Central Park, New York City; "The Hewer," at Cairo, Illinois; "The Rose Maiden," and the simple and graceful "Maidenhood."

All of these were successful, and in 1902 Barnard received the reward for all his hardships and struggles. He was selected to execute all the sculptured decorations for the new capitol for the state of Pennsylvania at Harrisburg. And the work he did there promises even greater from this sculptor in the future.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36 COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

Famous American Sculptors

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