Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/715

 SCULPTURE

647

SCULPTURE

John Flaxman (1755-1826), who found his inspira- tion in Greek rather than in Roman art. He is chiefly known for his pure classical figures on Wedg- wood pottery, but his marble reliefs arc also of great beauty. Among the numerous classicists who fol- lowed were: Francis Chantrey, Sir Richard Westma- cott, E. H. Bailey, and especially John Gibson (1790- (1860), whose religious works include a reUef of Christ blessing the little children. The classical tendency prevailed until the last quarter of the nineteenth cen- tury, but the later part of the period was marked by increasing naturalism. The cliief representations of the transition include John Henry Foley (1818-74), whose statues of Goldsmith, Burke, and Grattan at Dublin are noteworth j^ ; Thomas Brock, whose works include the O'Connell monument at Dublin and the Victoria Memorial in London, England's most ambi- tious monument of sculpture, seventy feet high, and containing many symbolic figures; George Armstead (1828-1905), who carved a St. Matthew and other marble figures for the reredos of the Church of St. Mary, Aberavon; Sir J. E. Boehm (1834-91); Thomas Wool- ner (1825-93), a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Broth- erhood. The most important British sculptor of the nineteenth century was Alfred Stevens (1817-75), a pupil of Thorwaldsen, but whose classical training did not preclude great originality in all branches of sculp- ture. His Wellington monument in St. Paul's Cathe- dral is perhaps the most important that English sculp- ture has produced. Mention should also be made of Lord Leighton (1830-1896), whose sculpture excels his painting, and particularly of George Frederick Watts, in whose works great power and originality are united with a high spiritual significance.

The great change in English sculpture since about 1875 is due to French influence. For many years Jules Dalou, a French political exile of 1870, was in charge of the modelling classes in South Kensington Museum. His teachings substituted structure and movement for the previous haphazard methods, and inaugurated a sane and healthy naturalism. His pu- pils include Hamo Thorneycroft, whose finely-mod- elled Teucer inaugurated the new movement. Other important sculptors of the same tendencies are E. Onslow Ford, educated at Munich; J. M. Swan, the animal sculptor; and George Frampton, whose works are of a fine decorative quality and quite original (in- cluding a very attractive St. George). But the most original and influential figure of British art of the present day is Alfred Gilbert, who excels in all branches of sculpture, and whose very modern style unites the goldsmith's to the sculptor's art. His works include a beautiful high relief of Christ and Angels for the reredos of the St. Albans' Cathedral. Nearly all of these men enjoyed French training, but their art possesses certain qualities which are dis- tinctly national.

In the United States. — Sculpture in the United States is a development of the last three quarters of the nineteenth century. It has developed in connex- ion with the schools of Western Europe, but without being less individual or national than they. Its his- tory may be divided into three periods: (1) The Classical Period, (1825-50); (2) the Middle Period (1850-80), in which classicism still exists, but increas- ingly gives way to a more national development; (3) the Contemporary or Cosmopolitan Period, de- veloped as elsewhere, under French mfluence.

The Classical School. — Neither the Puritan doc- trines of the early settlers nor the other religious ten- dencies of the early nineteenth century were friendly to the development of sculpture. There were no fa- cilities for technical training of any description, no monuments to study or inspire. Consequently, the few sculptors of colonial and early revolutionary pe- riods were unimportant and formed no schools. The real development began in 1825 with the departure of

Horatio Greenough of Boston (1805-52) for Rome. The character of his art is well known from his half- draped gigantic statue of Washington as the Olym- pian Zeus, which long stood before the Capitol at Washington. Hiram Powers (1805-73) did similar work, but of a more sentimental character, in such statues as his celebrated "Greek Slave", an example of the nude, chastely treated, and his "Eve Discon- solate". Thomas Crawford (1813-57), a pupil of Thorwaldsen, is known as the sculptor of the bronze "Liberty" surmounting the dome of the Capitol at Washington, the bronze portals of the Capitol, and the pedimental group of the Senate Chamber.

Middle or Native Period. — Even during the classi- cal period the transition to a more national art be- gan. The pioneer was Henry Kirk Brown (1814-86), whose work, unaffected by his Italian study, is best typified in his remarkable equestrian statue of George Washington in Union Square, New York. Another important sculptor of native tendencies was Erastus Dow Palmer (1817-1904), who was practically self- trained and never left America. His ideal nude fig- ures were the best executed up to that time, while his "Angel of the Sepulchre" shows his strength in re- ligious subjects. Thomas Ball (1819) set a new standard in pubhc monuments by such works as his equestrian statue of General Washington in Boston and his Lincoln monument in Washington. Repre- sentatives of the Classical School during the middle period include the many-sided W. W. Storey, Ran- dolph Rogers, W. H. Rinehart, whose works may be best studied in Baltimore, and Harriet Hosmer. Mention may also be made of the statues of Civil War subjects by John Rogers (1824-1904), which en- joyed great popularity without being real art. The most distinguished artist of the later middle period was J. Q. A. Ward (1830-1910), a pupil of H. K. Brown, whose art is powerful, simple and sculptur- esque. He was as successful in his public monuments as in his statues, such as the "Indian Hunter", which stands in Central Park, New York.

Contemporary Sculpture. — The most recent devel- opment of American sculpture was ushered in by the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, which revealed the superiority of European, particularly of the French work. From that time Paris became the training school of American sculptors, with the result of an unprecedented improvement in the technique and content of their art and the gradual development of a national school of great promise. Among the first to show the Parisian influence was O. L. Warner (1844—96), but the most prominent figure thus far in American sculpture is Augustus St. Gaudens (1848- 1907). To the highest technical efficiency he added remarkable powers of characterization. His Shaw memorial relief at Boston and the statue of Lincoln in Chicago were epoch-making, and his General Sher- man in Central Park, New York, places him in the first rank of American sculptors. His religious works include a beautiful "Amor Caritas" in the Luxem- bourg Museum, Paris. Foreign influence is absent

from the work of Daniel Chester French (1850 ),

whose art is characterized by restraint and a certain purity of conception. Among his most charming works are "Death and the Sculptor" (Art Institute, Chicago) and the O'Reilly memorial in Boston, with a beautiful figure of Erin mourning. Frederick Mac- monnies is the most thoroughly French of all our sculp- tors, while Herbert Adams has found inspiration in the early Florentine masters.

Other prominent sculptors of the Cosmopolitan period include Bela L. Pratt, of Boston, Charles Grafly, of Philadelphia, Lorado Taft, of Chicago, and Douglas Tilden, of San Francisco, whose art is the most radical of all. But the centre of American sculp- ture is New York. Mention should be made of Charles H. Niehaus, a master of modelling, who rep-