Sculpture of the Exposition Palaces and Courts Part 4

Wildflower

Edward Berge, Sculptor

At sight of your form, I seem now to see A bright stretch of color across a broad lea, Where the wildflowers sway to and fro in the breeze, Where the winds sing soft lullabies up in the trees Where all is as fresh, free and wholesome as you, Little Wildflower, blooming, so sweet and so true.

And I come from the flight of my far-away dream As I look and I listen, to me it would seem That I hear a small voice in a most charming way Say, "Goodmorrow! Goodmorrow! Take time while you may, Just step up yet closer; I'll give you a chance To have something far sweeter than just a bright glance."

Appendix

The Sculptors

The planning, the placing, the naming of all this n.o.ble sculpture has practically been done by two men - the late Karl Bitter of New York, a man of great executive and technical ability as well as of immense inspiration, and A. Stirling Calder, on whom the honor for the great bulk of the work rests. Besides acting as personal overseer for the execution of the sculpture of the Palaces and Courts of the Exposition, Mr. Calder has designed the Nations of the Orient, The Nations of the Occident, The Fountain of Energy, The Stars, Column of Progress and its sculpture, and The Oriental Flower Girl. Since the sculpture is one of the strongest factors of this Exposition, we should extend to Mr. Calder our heart-felt appreciation of all that he has done to help make this Exposition such a wonderful, artistic success.

Robert Ingersoll Aitken

Robert Ingersoll Aitken was born in San Francisco in 1878. He was a pupil of Arthur F. Mathews at the Mark Hopkins Inst.i.tute of Art and later of Dougla.s.s Tilden, the well-known California sculptor. He has done a great deal of very strong, compelling work. The examples of his sculpture seen at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition are of p.r.o.nounced virility and of fine composition. He is a man who excels in technique. He has done in San Francisco the Victory for the Dewey Monument in Union Square, the McKinley Monument, the Bret Harte Monument and the Hall-McAllister Monument. In the Metropolitan Museum of New York is "The Flame." At the Fine Arts Palace are a number of works from his chisel - The Gates of Silence, the Gates' memorial, being by far the finest.

Herbert Adams

Herbert Adams was born in Vermont in 1858. He has had many advantages, not the least of which were the five years spent in Paris. While there he did the beautiful bust of Adelaide Pond, who afterwards became his wife. In 1890 he returned to America, becoming instructor in the Art School of Pratt Inst.i.tute, Brooklyn. He has done a number of works for the Congressional Library, the Vanderbilt bronze doors of the St.

Bartholomew Church of New York, the tympan of the Madonna and Child in the same church, a statue of William Ellery Channing and many others.

His beautiful busts of women are said to be unsurpa.s.sed even in France.

Edward Berge

Edward Berge was born at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1874. He was admitted quite early in life to the Maryland Inst.i.tute of Art, and the Rhinehart School of Sculpture of Baltimore, following this instruction by the usual finis.h.i.+ng-off at Paris. He had the good fortune while in Paris to study under the great Rodin. He won bronze medals at both the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 and the St. Louis Exposition of 1904.

His many very interesting fountain figures seen at the Panama, Pacific International Exposition have won deserved praise from the many who have seen them.

Solon Borglum

Solon Borglum was born in 1868 at Ogden, Utah. The greater part of his early life was spent on the plains of Nebraska, la.s.soing wild horses and photographing at the same time every detail of this strange life upon his brain. He spent a short time in California, where he began his life as an artist. Realizing his limitations, he went to the Cincinnati Art School, where he studied some time under Rebisso. It was while here that he spent all of his spare time on the anatomy of the horse. The time soon arrived for a sojourn in Paris. His "Little Horse in the Wind"

excited p.r.o.nounced attention at the Salon that first year abroad and honors were bestowed upon him as long as he remained in Paris. He has given the Indian the greatest attention, and is one of the best sculptors of the red man in the United States. He has but one group in the Fine Arts Palace - "Was.h.i.+ngton."

Edith Woodman Burroughs

One of the chief women sculptors of the United States is Edith Woodman Burroughs, born at Riverdale-on-the-Hudson, in 1871. She was a pupil at the New York Art Students' League under Augustus Saint-Gaudens, later studying in Paris with Injalbert and Merson. In 1893 she was married to Bryson Burroughs, a New York artist. She has made a specialty of fountain sculpture. No one who has ever seen her Fountain of Youth at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition can forget it. It will always be a source of regret that the appropriation for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition sculpture was reduced, thus preventing the public from seeing the speaking, simple groups of "Arabian Nights Entertainments." Mrs. Burroughs is represented at the Metropolitan Museum of New York by "John La Farge," a remarkably interesting portrait head, full of character. She has the power of speaking her language in a few words - but just the right ones.

A. Stirling Calder

The man at the wheel in the management of all the works of sculpture at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition has been A. Stirling Calder.

He was born at Philadelphia in 1870. Having studied four years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he had the advantage of two years in Paris. For some time he has been connected with the Philadelphia School of Industrial Arts. He is a man of splendid imagination, of dignified and n.o.ble purpose, being one of the sincere men of his art who keeps the standards where they should be. One of his early works, "The Man Cub,"

in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, is most original and interesting in its treatment. It stands a most unique figure in the line of sculpture. It is said that his "Martha W. Baldwin Memorial" is one of the best designs for a figure and pedestal yet produced in America. Mr.

Calder lived some time in southern California and when there did the sculptured work on the portico of Throop Polytechnic Inst.i.tute of Pasadena. This work was done by means of enormous castings made in fine concrete. Mr. Calder originated this method and it will probably be the means of revolutionizing the relief work done on many of the public buildings in the future. Mr. Calder's rare intellectual fiber, added to his accurate knowledge of his subjects, with his exalted outlook, has placed him among the foremost American sculptors.

James Earle Fraser

James Earle Fraser was born at Winona, Minnesota, in 1876. His father was a railroad constructor, so that the lad had a good chance in traveling around the country to study the free types and life of the West. Being very impressionable, he imbibed a great deal which he has turned to good account in his chosen work. At fourteen he started to carve figures from the chalk that conventionality required to be used on blackboard problems. At eighteen he entered the Chicago Art Inst.i.tute, where he stayed for but three months. He soon went to Paris, going first to the Beaux Arts and later to the Colorossi and Julian Academies. He won many honors during his three years stay in Paris. In 1898 he won the prize offered by the American Art a.s.sociation in Paris for the best work in sculpture. Augustus Saint-Gaudens was on the jury and immediately became interested in the talented boy who later on held the place of chief a.s.sistant in the Saint-Gaudens studio. He became instructor of the Art Students' League of New York in 1906, holding the position until 1911. He it was who made the new five-cent piece design - the Indian head on one side, the bison on the other. He is particularly interested in personalities, having done a number of very clever portrait busts. It is enough to look at the portrait bust of Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney's boy to realize what he is able to do in the line of portraiture. He has produced nothing finer in that line. He is a master of character records.

Daniel Chester French

Since the pa.s.sing of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Daniel Chester French has been regarded by many as standing at the head of American sculpture. He was born in Exeter, New Hamps.h.i.+re, in 1850. After having one year at the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology, he studied with Doctor Rimnier of Boston, the first teacher of art anatomy in the United States. Later he studied with Thomas Ball of Florence, Italy, and a short time in Paris.

He has been practically his own instructor. His work is of the n.o.blest type. It is anatomically correct, of a high intellectual order, perfect technique and of fine imagery. His first important work was "The Minute Man" of Concord, Ma.s.sachusetts. Among his many works are "Death and the Sculptor," "The Alice Freeman Palmer Memorial," the head of "Emerson"

(which caused Emerson to say, "This is the head I shave"), "The Milmore Memorial," "The Alma Mater of Columbia College," and finest of all, the wonderful "Mourning Victory" in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord. His memorials are of high spiritual import.

Sherry E. Fry

Sherry E. Fry was born in Iowa in 1879. He has been most fortunate in having the best instruction, having studied at the Chicago Art Inst.i.tute, the Julian Academy and the Beaux Arts of Paris, a year in Florence, and later with McMonnies, Barrias, Verlet and Lorado Taft. He has traveled extensively, so has had the opportunity of seeing the best that the world holds for the artist. He won the National Roman Prize in 1908 and held it for three years. He has been a careful student of the Indians. His work at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition is distinctly graceful and decorative.

Albert Jaegers

Albert Jaegers, a man who has taught himself his art, having fine powers of observation and much invention, was born at Elberfeld, Germany, in 1868. He has been an indefatigable worker, holding his art above all else. Solving technical problems by himself, studying the world around him with an intense love in all his undertakings, Albert Jaegers has come to be a power among his fellows. He has exhibited at several Expositions, has done considerable munic.i.p.al work - the finest figure probably being his "Baron Steuben," of Was.h.i.+ngton - and many fine portraits. His "Uncle Joe Cannon" in the Fine Arts Palace, shows his power as a portraitist. His work has brought him decorations from the German Emperor.

Isidore Konti

A foreign sculptor living in New York, Isidore Konti has steadily risen in the excellence of his work until to-day he stands among the foremost American sculptors. He was born at Vienna, in 1862. His father's capture by the Viennese in the war against Hungary, where the father lived, and his subsequent compulsory connection with the Viennese army made the son, Isidore, long for the freedom of America. He came to America as a boy, living in Chicago. He exhibited at the Chicago Exposition in 1893, and later attracted much favorable comment at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. His works in the Fine Arts Palace are of a very high order and are exquisitely modeled. The more sober life of the individual, with appreciation of sentiment and longing, are evident in his works.

Leo Lentelli