Cyrus Dallin Art Museum in the Jefferson Cutter House | |
Location | 611 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | 42°24′55″N71°9′12″W / 42.41528°N 71.15333°W |
Built | 1830 |
Architectural style | Greek Revival, Federal |
MPS | Arlington MRA |
NRHP reference No. | 85001028 [1] |
Added to NRHP | January 23, 1992 |
The Cyrus Dallin Art Museum (CDAM) in Arlington, Massachusetts, United States is dedicated to displaying the artworks and documentation of American sculptor, educator, and Indigenous rights activist Cyrus Dallin, [2] who lived and worked in the town for over 40 years. [3] He is well known for his sculptural works around the US including The Scout in Kansas City, Missouri, TheSoldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Syracuse, New York and The Signal of Peace in Chicago. Locally, he is best known for his iconic Appeal to the Great Spirit and Paul Revere Monument statues, both located in Boston.
The Cyrus Dallin Art Museum is the only institution in the United States solely dedicated to preserving and interpreting the work of this late 19th to early 20th-century sculptor, and it exhibits over 90 artworks spanning Cyrus Dallin's 60-year career.[ citation needed ] These include portrayals of Indigenous peoples and Anglo-European historical figures; portraits of family members and friends; casts and prototypes of public monuments and memorials; and coins, medals, and paintings. The museum's comprehensive exhibits ground Dallin's body of work within the context of his commitment to artistic expression, education, and Indigenous rights.Dallin's 60-year career.
The Cyrus Dallin Art Museum is located in the Jefferson Cutter House, a historic house on the National Register of Historic Places located in the center of Arlington, Massachusetts. The building is owned by the town, and also serves as the location of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce and the Cutter Gallery, an organization that exhibits the work of local artists. [4]
Built in 1830 in a Greek Revival/Federal style in a saltbox shape, it originally was home to Jefferson Cutter, who was born in Arlington (then part of West Cambridge) in 1803. [4] The elaborately carved main entry door is likely the work of Cutter himself, who was a turner and millwright.[ citation needed ] The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.[ citation needed ]
Cyrus Edwin Dallin | |
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Notable work | Appeal to the Great Spirit (1908) Paul Revere Monument (1885–1940) Angel Moroni (1893) |
Cyrus Edwin Dallin was born on November 22, 1861, in Springville, Utah. [5] His sculpting and artistic talent was recognized at an early age, and he was sent to Boston at 19 to study with T.H. Bartlett. Today he is regarded as one of the most important sculptors in American art. [6]
Dallin found the road to success difficult, but his perseverance and dedication are revealed in his efforts to complete whatever he started. A testament to Dallin's tenacity is his 58-year campaign to get an equestrian statue of Paul Revere funded and fabricated. After a series of 7 versions over the years, Dallin's statue was erected in 1940 in Boston's historic North End. [5]
In 1891, Dallin married the writer Vittoria Colonna Murray; the couple raised three sons. [5] During this time, Dallin actively pursued commissions, exhibited, and won many prizes. Stable income to support his family came from teaching appointments, chiefly at the Massachusetts Normal Art School (now Massachusetts College of Art and Design), from 1900 to 1941. [6]
Dallin gained the respect of other artists of his day, including Augustus St. Gaudens and John Singer Sargent, who became a close friend. (Sargent's sketch of Dallin's Portico is a treasured item in the museum's collection.) [7] Dallin's art was reproduced and collected on a broad scale. Among his most beloved works are his monuments of Native Americans, which changed the face of public art in America.
In 1900, at the age of 39, Dallin moved to Arlington, Massachusetts, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. As a result, Arlington is now the home for many of his works. Dallin died at his own home on November 14, 1944, a week short of his 83rd birthday. [6]
The museum is a joint venture of the Cyrus E. Dallin Art Museum, Inc. (an independent nonprofit organization) and the Town of Arlington. In 1982, the Arlington Arts Council received a $720 grant from State Lottery funds, which were applied to a historic marker for the Robbins Memorial Flagstaff that includes five sculptures by Cyrus Dallin. [8]
In 1984, growing awareness of Dallin fostered the formation of a committee to survey the town buildings to find and catalog Dallin's works throughout Arlington. This project led to the discovery of 24 works, many of which needed care. [8] In 1985, following the recommendation of the committee, the Arlington Town Meeting established the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum. The stated mission of the museum was to collect, preserve, and exhibit the work of Cyrus Dallin. The following year, the Board of Selectmen appointed a volunteer board of trustees to operate the museum. A fundraising effort begun in 1988 raised $35,000 toward a restoration program. [8]
The collection did not have a home until 1998, when the town acquired the historic Jefferson Cutter House and made the property available for use as the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum. In October 1998, founders James McGough, Geri Tremblay, David Formanex, Richard Bowler, Ann Bowler, and others celebrated the opening of the museum's first two exhibition galleries in the Jefferson Cutter house. [9] In 2000, the nonprofit Cyrus E. Dallin Art Museum Inc. was established to serve as the fundraising and fiduciary arm of the museum. Two additional galleries were added, in 2001 and 2004. [7]
The Cyrus Dallin Museum hosts over 90 works by Cyrus Dallin including plaster and bronze sculptures, reliefs, medals, and paintings. The museum also provides a self-guided walking tour to other local sculptures, including Dallin works located nearby.
Mahonri Mackintosh Young was an American social-realist sculptor and artist. During his lengthy career, he created more than 320 sculptures, 590 oil paintings, 5,500 watercolors, 2,600 prints, and thousands of drawings. However, he is primarily recognized for his sculpture. His work includes landscapes, portraits, busts, life-size sculptures, monuments, and engravings. Regardless of his medium of choice, his work is characterized by spontaneity; he often preferred to prepare his work with quick sketches on the scene. He felt this made his work more natural as compared to using a model in the studio. He was fairly commercially successful during his life, though he did not find success until his mid-30s. Large commissions for sculptures from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were particularly lucrative for him.
The Springville Museum of Art in Springville, Utah, United States is the oldest museum for the visual fine arts in Utah. In 1986, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As of 2012, the museum's director is Rita Wright.
Cyrus Edwin Dallin was an American sculptor best known for his depictions of Native Americans. He created more than 260 works, including the Equestrian Statue of Paul Revere in Boston; the Angel Moroni atop Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City; and Appeal to the Great Spirit (1908), at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He was also an accomplished painter and an Olympic archer.
James Edward Kelly was an American sculptor and illustrator who specialized in depicting people and events of American wars, particularly the American Civil War.
Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, also known as Tho. A. R. Kitson and Theo Alice Ruggles, was an American sculptor.
Appeal to the Great Spirit is a 1908 equestrian statue by Cyrus Dallin, located in front of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It portrays a Native American on horseback facing skyward, his arms spread wide in a spiritual request to the Great Spirit. It was the last of Dallin's four prominent sculptures of Indigenous people known as The Epic of the Indian, which also include A Signal of Peace (1890), The Medicine Man (1899), and Protest of the Sioux (1904).
Anne Whitney was an American sculptor and poet. She made full-length and bust sculptures of prominent political and historical figures, and her works are in major museums in the United States. She received prestigious commissions for monuments. Two statues of Samuel Adams were made by Whitney and are located in Washington, D.C.'s National Statuary Hall Collection and in front of Faneuil Hall in Boston. She also created two monuments to Leif Erikson.
Truman Howe Bartlett (1835–1922), also known as T. H. Bartlett, was an American sculptor, and father to sculptor Paul Wayland Bartlett.
The Arlington Center Historic District includes the civic and commercial heart of Arlington, Massachusetts. It runs along the town's main commercial district, Massachusetts Avenue, from Jason Street to Franklin Street, and includes adjacent 19th- and early 20th-century residential areas roughly bounded by Jason Street, Pleasant Street, and Gray Street. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The Taylor-Dallin House is a historic house in Arlington, Massachusetts. The house is notable as being the home of sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin (1861–1944) from 1899 until his death. It is a Colonial Revival/Shingle style 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, with a hip roof studded with dormers, and a front porch supported by Tuscan columns. The house was built c. 1898 by Jack Taylor and sold to Dallin in 1899. Dallin's studio, no longer extant, stood in the rear of the property. Dallin was one of Arlington's most well-known citizens of the early 20th century, and his sculptures are found in several public settings around the town.
The Medicine Man is an 1899 bronze equestrian statue by Cyrus Edwin Dallin located on Dauphin Street, west of 33rd Street, in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. The statue portrays an indigenous American medicine man.
A Signal of Peace is an 1890 bronze equestrian sculpture by Cyrus Edwin Dallin located in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Dallin created the work while studying in Paris and based the figure on a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which he attended often. He exhibited the original plaster version of the sculpture at the Paris Salon of 1890, where it won honorable mention.
The Dallin House is a historic residence in Springville, Utah, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
A statue of Anne Hutchinson by Cyrus Edwin Dallin is installed outside the Massachusetts State House, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
An equestrian statue of Paul Revere by Cyrus Edwin Dallin is installed at Paul Revere Mall near the Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts.
Massasoit is a statue by the American sculptor Cyrus Edwin Dallin in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was completed in 1921 to mark the three hundredth anniversary of the Pilgrims' landing. The sculpture is meant to represent the Pokanoket leader Massasoit welcoming the Pilgrims on the occasion of the first Thanksgiving. Several replicas of the statue exist across the United States, including numerous small-scale souvenir reproductions.
The Menotomy Hunter (1911) is a sculpture by Cyrus E. Dallin in Arlington, Massachusetts, showing a Native American hunter pausing at a brook for a drink of water. It is located between the Arlington Town Hall and the Robbins Memorial Library. The sculpture resides at the center of the garden between Town Hall and the Robbins Library, on a crest above a long, shallow reflecting pool. The man is equipped for a hunt, holding a bow. His catch for the day, a goose, rests by his foot.
The Robbins Memorial Flagstaff (1913) is a structure supporting and topping a flagpole in Arlington, Massachusetts created by Cyrus Dallin. The supporting sculpture includes a variety of sculptural elements including bronze figures, stone eagles, and snapping turtles with a finial representing American Agriculture. The sculpture resides to the west of Town Hall at 730 Massachusetts Avenue.
Boy and His Dog Sculpture or Storrow Memorial is a 1923 statue by Cyrus Dallin, located in a prominent location in Lincoln Cemetery. It portrays a young man bending down to pick a flower with a dog gazing up into his visage. It was created at the request of Helen Osborne Storrow as a memorial to her husband James Jackson Storrow. The Storrows are interred 30 feet north of the monument across a small road in a grave overlooking a picturesque pond.