DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH
BIRTHPLACE OF G. G. BARNARD
Barnard was born at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, where his parents were temporarily residing in 1863. The sculptor is really a Westerner.
Worthy successor to the great artist who put us all under such heavy obligations is Daniel Chester French, whose work is known throughout the land. French was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1850, and grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, amid ideal surroundings. His first youthful effort in sculpture, “The Minute Man of Concord,” was a success, and his busy life has known no failures. No other American sculptor has produced so much, and we can name here but a few of his most important works.
MINUTE MAN, BY FRENCH
At Concord, Massachusetts.
Reproduced from American Sculpture, by Lorado Taft. Copyright, 1903, by The MacMillan Co.
ALMA MATER, BY FRENCH
Adorning the approach to the Library of Columbia University, New York City.
DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH
French is well known as a sculptor in both America and Europe.
Best beloved is the noble “Death and the Young Sculptor,” designed as a memorial to the sculptor, Martin Milmore. In this poetic group we have unquestionably one of the highest expressions of a purely American art. Other works of interest are the ascetic “John Harvard” of Cambridge; a vigorous “General Cass” and the touchingly sympathetic “Gallaudet” group, both in Washington, D. C.; the “O’Reilly” monument of Boston; the equestrian “Washington” in Paris and Chicago; “General Grant” in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia; and “General Hooker” in Boston. Among his most recent works are a “Lincoln” for Lincoln, Nebraska, and an “Emerson” for Concord.
The Columbian Exposition was crowned by French’s gigantic and truly monumental “Republic,” a superb figure which reappears, comfortably seated for all time, in the “Alma Mater” of Columbia. French does not disdain architectural sculpture, and has made beautiful groups for the Custom House of New York, the postoffice of Cleveland, and the pediment of the Brooklyn Institute. In the recent Parkman and Melvin memorials he has shown a treatment peculiarly adapted to the stone, a most valuable suggestion to our younger men. No one has greater influence upon the trend of American sculpture than has French, and many there are who owe to him their successful beginnings.