Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) was an American sculptor who was active in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, to Anne Richardson French and Henry Flagg French on April 20, 1850. [1] His father, a polymath, was a judge and college president who popularized the French drain. In 1867, the family moved to Concord, Massachusetts, and French enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [1] French did not perform well academically and, after a year, he left the college and returned to Concord where he first learned sculpture while attending art classes with Louisa May Alcott. [2] Between 1869 and 1872, French studied anatomy with William Rimmer, and in 1870 he undertook a one-month apprenticeship with the sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward. [3] After completing The Minute Man in 1875, French studied sculpture in Florence, Italy, for a year, during part of which he worked out of Thomas Ball's studio. [4]
French's education ended and career began in 1876 when he accepted a contract to produce a set of statues for the United States Post Office Department. [5] He created statues for the Post Office throughout the 1880s. In 1883, French was commissioned to create John Harvard . [6] For the rest of his career, French produced commissions for state, federal, and private groups as well as private individuals. In 1896, he moved his studio to Chesterwood, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where it remained until his death. [7] In 1912, French was appointed as chair of the United States Commission of Fine Arts. [8] He continued to be on the commission until 1915, when he resigned to accept his most famous commission, Abraham Lincoln , which sits in the Lincoln Memorial. [9] On October 7, 1931, French died in his sleep. [10]
French was a prolific sculptor, creating 92 public sculptures from 1871 until his death in 1931. His sculptures are mostly in the eastern and midwestern United States, but one, Thomas Starr King , is in San Francisco, and two, General George Washington and the Marseillaise Memorial, are in France. The majority of the sculptures are bronze castings or made of stone, but Progress of the State is gilded copper and Alma Mater [lower-alpha 1] and The Republic are gilded bronze. Nearly all of French's works are solo, but eight, Ulysses S. Grant , General George Washington (Paris), Joseph Hooker , General George Washington (Chicago), General Charles Devens , Indian Corn, Wheat, and Progress of the State, were the result of a collaboration with Edward Clark Potter. General Philip H. Sheridan was a completion of an unfinished statue by John Quincy Adams Ward, and the Daniel Webster Memorial was completed by Margaret French Cresson after French's death.
Thomas Ball was an American sculptor and musician. His work has had a marked influence on monumental art in the United States, especially in New England.
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is best known for his 1874 sculpture The Minute Man in Concord, Massachusetts, and his 1920 monumental statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who oversaw the engineering and design of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., built between 1915 and 1922, which was his final project before his 1924 death.
John Quincy Adams Ward was an American sculptor, whose most familiar work is his larger than life-size standing statue of George Washington on the steps of Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City.
Alma Mater is a bronze sculpture by Daniel Chester French which is located on the steps of the Low Memorial Library on the campus of Columbia University, in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. French designed the statue in 1901, and it was installed in September 1903. It is a personification of the alma mater, which represents Columbia in its role as an educational institution; since its installation, the statue has become closely associated with the image of the university.
Chesterwood was the summer estate and studio of American sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) located at 4 Williamsville Road in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Most of French's originally 150-acre (61 ha) estate is now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which operates the property as a museum and sculpture garden. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 in recognition of French's importance in American sculpture.
Martin Milmore (1844–1883) was an American sculptor.
Abraham Lincoln (1920) is a colossal seated figure of the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), sculpted by Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers. Located in the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the statue was unveiled in 1922. The work follows in the Beaux Arts and American Renaissance style traditions.
Abraham Lincoln – also known as The Gettysburg Lincoln – is a bronze statue of President Abraham Lincoln by Daniel Chester French, located on the grounds of the Nebraska State Capitol. The monument was commissioned by the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Association of Lincoln, Nebraska, and produced in 1912.
Death and the Sculptor, also known as the Milmore Monument and The Angel of Death and the Young Sculptor is a sculpture in bronze, and one of the most important and influential works of art created by sculptor Daniel Chester French. The work was commissioned to mark the grave in Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, of the brothers Joseph (1841–1886), James and Martin Milmore (1844–1883). It has two figures effectively in the round, linked to a background relief behind them. The right-hand figure represents a sculptor, whose hand holding a chisel is gently restrained by the fingers of the left-hand figure, representing Death, here shown as a winged female.
Carl H. Conrads was an American sculptor best known for his work on Civil War monuments and his two works in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. He was also known as Charles Conrads.
Russell Alger Memorial Fountain is a Detroit, Michigan fountain, one of the "most successful collaborations" created by the sculptor, Daniel Chester French and architect Henry Bacon. The bronze statue was cast by the Gorham Manufacturing Company. It is located in Grand Circus Park and was dedicated on July 27, 1921.
The John Boyle O'Reilly Memorial by Daniel Chester French is a memorial installed along Boston's Fenway, near the intersection of Boylston Street, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It was created in 1896 to honor Irish-born writer and activist John Boyle O'Reilly not long after his death in 1890.
The Minute Man is an 1874 sculpture by Daniel Chester French in Minute Man National Historical Park, Concord, Massachusetts. It was created between 1871 and 1874 after extensive research, and was originally intended to be made of stone. The medium was switched to bronze and it was cast from ten Civil War-era cannons appropriated by Congress.
The equestrian statue of Charles Devens is a public monument in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Located in front of the old Worcester County Courthouse in the Institutional District, the equestrian statue honors Charles Devens, who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and later served as United States Attorney General. The statue was designed by Daniel Chester French and Edward Clark Potter and was dedicated on July 4, 1906.
The George Frisbie Hoar statue is a public monument in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Located on the north side of the Worcester City Hall, the monument honors George Frisbie Hoar, a politician from the city. The monument, which consists of a statue designed by Daniel Chester French, was dedicated in 1908.
The Thomas Gallaudet Memorial is a sculpture by Daniel Chester French located on the campus of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., United States. The 1889 statue depicts Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet sitting in a chair and Alice Cogswell standing at his side.
Marquis de Lafayette is a monumental statue on the campus of Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. The statue, designed by Daniel Chester French and standing on a pedestal designed by Henry Bacon, was dedicated in 1921 in honor of the college's namesake, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. The statue is located at the south entrance of Colton Chapel. It is one of a number of sculptures made by French for universities, which includes the statue of John Harvard at Harvard University and Alma Mater at Columbia University.
Commodore George Hamilton Perkins is a public memorial that stands on the grounds of the New Hampshire State House in Concord, New Hampshire, United States. The statue was designed by sculptor Daniel Chester French, with architect Henry Bacon designing the remainder of the public monument. It honors George H. Perkins, a New Hampshire native who had served as an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The statue was dedicated in 1902.
Daniel Chester French: American Sculptor is a documentary film about Daniel Chester French, a leading American sculptor best known for his rendering of the seated President Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., produced by Heritage Film Project with the support of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Chesterwood. Significant support for this film came from the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund.