Chas Fagan | |
---|---|
Born | 1966 |
Nationality | American |
Education | Yale University |
Known for | Oil Painting, Sculpture |
Notable work | Portraits, Sculptures, Political Cartoons |
Website | http://www.chasfagan.com/ |
Chas Fagan is an American artist and sculptor. He is known for painting oil portraits of all 45 U.S. Presidents (as of 2016), on commission from C-SPAN and the White House Historical Association. [1] [2] He also painted the official canonization image of Mother Teresa on commission from the Knights of Columbus, basing his work on a photograph by Michael Collopy. [3] His other works include portraits, landscapes and still life, along with sculptures related to American historical figures. [4] His work was featured in the American Presidents: Life Portraits exhibition in 1999, and in other venues.
Chas Fagan was born in Ligonier, Pennsylvania in 1966. [5] He spent much of his early life in Belgium with his father, who worked as a diplomat. [3] He graduated Yale University with a degree in Russian and East European Studies. His earliest artistic works were political cartoons in a variety of publications. His career as a painter took off after his portrait of Ronald Reagan appeared on the cover of the conservative publication The Weekly Standard .
Fagan produced a monument of Captain James Jack and horse, who rode the Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Declaration of Independence in June 1775 to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Dedication of the monument called "The Spirit of Mecklenburg" was made with full colonial set and re-enactors on the 235th anniversary of the famous ride and took place nationally on "Good Morning, America" hosted by Cokie Roberts. [6] His bronze sculpture of Reagan received criticism from KCRW journalist Edward Goldman for its:
stiff pose and bland facial expression echoing thousands of similarly banal portraits.... With the art of portraiture out of fashion in the leading American art schools, the statue was commissioned from a second-rate, self-taught artist who only excels at the art of pleasing his less than demanding clientele. [7]
He was appointed to the Commission of Fine Arts by President Donald Trump, and replaced by Joe Biden. [8]
Thomas Starr King, often known as Starr King, was an American Universalist and Unitarian minister, influential in California politics during the American Civil War, and Freemason. Starr King spoke zealously in favor of the Union and was credited by Abraham Lincoln with preventing California from becoming a separate republic. He is sometimes referred to as "the orator who saved the nation".
Felix Weihs de Weldon was an Austrian sculptor. His most famous pieces include the United States Marine Corps War Memorial in the Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, US, and the Malaysian National Monument (1966) in Kuala Lumpur.
The National Statuary Hall is a chamber in the United States Capitol devoted to sculptures of prominent Americans. The hall, also known as the Old Hall of the House, is a large, two-story, semicircular room with a second story gallery along the curved perimeter. It is located immediately south of the Rotunda. The meeting place of the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 50 years (1807–1857), after a few years of disuse it was repurposed as a statuary hall in 1864; this is when the National Statuary Hall Collection was established. By 1933, the collection had outgrown this single room, and a number of statues are placed elsewhere within the Capitol.
Franzisca Bernadina Wilhelmina Elisabeth Ney was a German-American sculptor who spent the first half of her life and career in Europe, producing portraits of famous leaders such as Otto von Bismarck, Giuseppe Garibaldi and King George V of Hanover. At age 39, she immigrated to Texas with her husband, Edmund Montgomery, and became a pioneer in the development of art there. Among her most famous works during her Texas period were life-size marble figures of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin, commissions for the Texas State Capitol. A large group of her works are housed in the Elisabet Ney Museum, located in her home and studio in Austin. Other works can be found in the United States Capitol, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and numerous collections in Germany.
Pompeo Luigi Coppini was an Italian born American sculptor. Although his works can be found in Italy, Mexico and a number of U.S. states, the majority of his work can be found in Texas. He is particularly famous for the Alamo Plaza work, Spirit of Sacrifice, a.k.a. The Alamo Cenotaph, as well as numerous statues honoring Texan figures, such as Lawrence Sullivan Ross, the fourth President of Texas A&M University.
The James A. Garfield Monument stands on the grounds of the United States Capitol in Garfield Circle, a traffic circle at First Street and Maryland Avenue SW in Washington, D.C. It is a memorial to U.S. President James A. Garfield, who was elected in 1880 and assassinated in 1881 after serving only four months of his term. The perpetrator was an attorney and disgruntled office-seeker named Charles J. Guiteau. Garfield lived for several weeks after the shooting, but eventually succumbed to his injuries. The monument is part of a three-part sculptural group near the Capitol Reflecting Pool, including the Peace Monument and the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial in Union Square. The monument is also a contributing property to the National Mall and L'Enfant Plan, both of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites. The bronze statue rests on a granite pedestal that features three sculptures, each one representing a time period in Garfield's life.
The United States Capitol building features a central rotunda below the Capitol dome. Built between 1818 and 1824, the rotunda has been described as the Capitol's "symbolic and physical heart".
Franklin Bachelder Simmons was a prominent American sculptor of the nineteenth century. Three of his statues are in the National Statuary Hall Collection, three of his busts are in the United States Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection, and his statue of Ulysses S. Grant is in the United States Capitol Rotunda.
The United States Capitol crypt is the large circular room filled with forty neoclassical Doric columns directly beneath the United States Capitol rotunda. It was built originally to support the rotunda as well as offer an entrance to Washington's Tomb. It currently serves as a museum and a repository for thirteen statues of the National Statuary Hall Collection.
Brett-Livingstone Strong is an Australian-born artist, best known for his historic monumental sculptures and portraits of Hollywood celebrities.
Billy Ray Pettit (1947–2006) was an American sculptor, best known for his bronze sculptures, which feature the rugged mountain men of the American West. His style was realistic, and much of his work portrayed aspects of pioneer life, the joys of the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous, and American Indian themes.
Benjamin Matthew Victor is an American sculptor living and working in Boise, Idaho. He is the only living artist to have three works in the National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. He is currently sculpting his fourth statue for the Statuary Hall, of Daisy Bates. He was only 26 years old when his first statue, Sarah Winnemucca, a Paiute activist in Nevada, was dedicated in the Hall in 2005, making him the youngest artist to ever be represented in the Hall. In 2014, his sculpture of Norman Borlaug, "the father of the Green Revolution," was dedicated in the National Statuary Hall and in 2019, his statue of Chief Standing Bear, a Native American rights leader, was dedicated in the National Statuary Hall making him the only living artist to have three sculptures in the Hall.
American Revolution Statuary is a group of fourteen statues in Washington, D.C., that honor men whose actions assisted the Thirteen Colonies in their fight against the Kingdom of Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War. They are spread throughout the city, except for the four statues in Lafayette Square, across from the White House, that honor some of the foreign heroes from the war. Some of the statues are located in prominent places, while others are in small parks or stand alone in front of buildings. All of the statues are owned and maintained by the National Park Service, an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. The statuary was collectively listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1978 and the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites the following year. In addition, most are also contributing properties to historic districts listed on the NRHP.
American Presidents: Life Portraits is a series produced by C-SPAN in 1999. Each episode was aired live, and was a two- to three-hour look at the life and times of one particular president of the United States. Episodes were broadcast from locations of importance to the profiled president, featured interviews with historians and other experts, and incorporated calls from viewers. The series served as a commemoration of C-SPAN's 20th anniversary.
Ronald Reagan is a bronze sculpture depicting the American politician of the same name by Chas Fagan, installed at the United States Capitol's rotunda, in Washington, D.C., as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. The statue was donated by the U.S. state of California in 2009, and replaced one depicting Thomas Starr King, which the state had gifted in 1931. The statue stands on top of fragments from the Berlin Wall.
John David Brcin was an American sculptor and artist.
The George H. W. Bush Monument, also known as the President Bush Monument, is an 8-foot (2.4 m) bronze statue of George H. W. Bush in Houston's Sesquicentennial Park, in the U.S. state of Texas.