Solon Borglum

Last updated • 6 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Solon Borglum
Solon Borglum.jpg
(ca. 1900)
Born(1868-12-22)December 22, 1868
DiedJanuary 31, 1922(1922-01-31) (aged 53)
Known for Sculpture

Solon Hannibal de la Mothe Borglum (December 22, 1868 – January 31, 1922) [1] was an American sculptor. He is most noted for his depiction of frontier life, and especially his experience with cowboys and native Americans.

Contents

He was awarded the Croix de Guerre by France [2] for his work with Les Foyers du Soldat service clubs during World War I. [3]

Early life

Born in Ogden, Utah, Borglum was the younger brother of Gutzon Borglum and uncle of Lincoln Borglum, the two men most responsible for the creation of the carvings at Mount Rushmore. Solon's Danish immigrant father James Borglum was a Mormon polygamist, being married to two sisters, Ida and Christina Mikkelsen. When the family each wife had two children moved to Nebraska they could no longer openly be husband and wives, so Solon and Gutzon's mother Christina was listed as the family servant. When the father moved the family again to St. Louis in 1871, so that he could attend medical school, the decision was made to leave Christina behind. The children were told to never talk about her again. Solon was about three years old at the time. [4] Solon grew up in Fremont, Nebraska and Omaha [5] and spent his early years as a rancher in western Nebraska. [6]

Solon’s father was a physician but had worked as a wood-carver, which almost certainly influenced Solon’s older brother, Gutzon, to pursue a career as an artist. Having shown little interest in formal schooling, the younger son spent his teens working on his father’s ranch near Fremont, Nebraska. He showed a talent for drawing horses, and his careful studies of their movements prompted Gutzon to encourage Solon to pursue art as a profession.

Education

In 1893 Solon went to Omaha to study with J. Laurie Wallace, a former pupil of Thomas Eakins. Following this early, and evidently brief, formal training, he joined his brother Gutzon at his home in the Sierra Madre mountains. A personality clash with Gutzon’s first wife Lisa however, forced Solon to move on; he went to Los Angeles, where he painted portraits and to Santa Ana, California, where he taught art privately. He had little success, however, and in November 1895 he traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he entered the Cincinnati Art Academy. One of his instructors, the sculptor Louis Rebisso, encouraged him to try sculpting. His first effort was a sculpture of a group of horses based on observations and drawings he had made at the U.S. Mail stables in Cincinnati. [7]

Borglum working, 1902 Solon Borglum 1902.jpg
Borglum working, 1902

In 1898 the Art Academy awarded Borglum a scholarship that allowed him to go to Paris, where he matriculated at the Académie Julian as a student of Denys Puech. He met leading sculptors Emmanuel Fremiet and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who gave him further encouragement. Borglum received a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle (1900) and another at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY [8]

Later life

In 1898, Borglum married, and Solon and his wife, Emma (née Vignal), [9] spent the summer of 1899 at the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota. Though he later lived in Paris and New York City and achieved a reputation as one of America's notable sculptors, it was his depictions of frontier life, and especially his experience with cowboys and Native American peoples, which was the basis of his reputation. [10]

In 1901, Solon and his wife, Emma had a son, Paul Arnold Borglum. [11] [12]

On 9 December 1903, Solon and his wife, Emma had a daughter, Monica (née Borglum) Davies. [13] [14]

In 1906, Borglum moved to the Silvermine neighborhood of New Canaan, Connecticut, where he helped found the "Knockers Club" of artists. His brother, Gutzon, lived in nearby Stamford, Connecticut from 1910 to 1920. [15]

In 1911, Borglum was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member. [16]

During World War I, Borglum was in France, serving as secretary of the YMCA, and then taught sculpture at the American Expeditionary Forces Art Training Center in Bellevue (Hauts-de-Seine)  [ fr ], Seine-et-Oise, [17] outside Paris. [18]

Circa 1918, in New York City, he opened a second [19] studio [20] and established the American School of Sculpture. [21] He ran the school and gave many lectures on art until his death after an appendectomy complicated by his war wounds [22] in January 1922. [23] His legacy was carried on by his wife Emma until her death in 1934, at which point his daughter Monica and her husband, A. Mervyn Davies, [24] oversaw the exhibition of his artwork. In 1974 they published his biography Solon H. Borglum: A Man Who Stands Alone.

Borglum's papers are held at the Archives of American Art, [25] and the Library of Congress. [26]

Works

Borglum created several animal groups while in Paris, including Lassoing Wild Horses and The Stampede of Wild Horses, which were shown at the Paris Salon in 1898 and 1899, respectively.

The year 1903 was a banner one for the artist. He had a one-man show of thirty-two small sculptures at the Keppel Gallery, New York. In his ground-breaking History of American Sculpture published that year, Lorado Taft devoted several pages to Borglum, [27] and he was the subject of an entire chapter in Charles Caffin’s 1903 book American Masters of Sculpture. [28] In 1904 Borglum won the gold medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in St. Louis.

Borglum received several major public commissions, including an equestrian monument of General John Brown Gordon for the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta (1907), one of Rough Rider Buckey O'Neill for the plaza in front of the courthouse in Prescott, Arizona (1907), and The Pioneer , which was erected in the Court of Honor at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco (1915).

Two of his works are located in Jersey City, New Jersey. His sculpture Buffalo and Bears is in Leonard Gordon Park in the city's Heights section [29]

In 1974 a group of the sculptor's descendants gave twenty bronzes, marbles, original plasters, portfolios of drawings and paintings to the New Britain Museum of American Art. Today the Museum houses the largest repository of Borglum's works.

Borglum sculpted a larger than life bronze equestrian statue for the Bucky O'Neill Monument, Rough Rider at the Yavapai County Court House Plaza in Prescott, Arizona. [30] Teddy Roosevelt had persuaded Buckey O'Neill to join the Rough Riders and he was killed at the Battle of San Juan Hill. Borglum's statue Cowboy at Rest is also located on the grounds of the Yavapai County Court House in Prescott, Arizona. [31]

Borglum's pieces can be found at the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming, including Evening, a depiction of a cowboy leaning against his unsaddled horse at the end of the day.

Two of Borglum's sculptures, Inspiration and Aspiration, which depict Native American men, stand in the front courtyard of St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, flanking the front gate.

Black and white photos of Cowboy Mounting, Lost in a Blizzard (in marble), and Tamed can be found in Caffin's book. [32]

List of works [33]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gutzon Borglum</span> American sculptor (1867–1941)

John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum was an American sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Mountain in Georgia, statues of Union General Philip Sheridan in Washington D.C. and in Chicago, as well as a bust of Abraham Lincoln exhibited in the White House by Theodore Roosevelt and now held in the United States Capitol crypt in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armory Show</span> 1913 American art exhibition

The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of the many exhibitions that have been held in the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Augustus Lukeman</span> American sculptor

Henry Augustus Lukeman was an American sculptor, specializing in historical monuments. Noted among his works are the World War I monument in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, the Kit Carson Monument in Trinidad, Colorado and the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial in Georgia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olin Levi Warner</span> American sculptor

Olin Levi Warner was an American sculptor and artist noted for the striking bas relief portrait medallions and busts he created in the late 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sculpture of the United States</span>

The history of sculpture in the United States begins in the 1600s "with the modest efforts of craftsmen who adorned gravestones, Bible boxes, and various utilitarian objects with simple low-relief decorations." American sculpture in its many forms, genres and guises has continuously contributed to the cultural landscape of world art into the 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silvermine, Connecticut</span> Unincorporated community in Connecticut, United States

Silvermine is an unincorporated community in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States that extends along the Silvermine River, across three southwestern Connecticut towns: Norwalk, New Canaan and Wilton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Whitney Frishmuth</span> American sculptor

Harriet Whitney Frishmuth was an American sculptor known for her works in bronze.

Robert Merrell Gage was an American sculptor, frequently credited and better known as Merrell Gage.

<i>Indian and the Puritan</i> United States historic place

Indian and the Puritan is a 1916 marble and bronze monument by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, opposite 5 Washington Street, the Newark Public Library, in Washington Park of Newark in Essex County, New Jersey. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 1994, as part of the Public Sculpture in Newark, New Jersey Multiple Property Submission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equestrian statue of Philip Sheridan (Washington, D.C.)</span> Bronze sculpture by Gutzon Borglum

General Philip Sheridan is a bronze sculpture that honors Civil War general Philip Sheridan. The monument was sculpted by Gutzon Borglum, best known for his design of Mount Rushmore. Dedicated in 1908, dignitaries in attendance at the unveiling ceremony included President Theodore Roosevelt, members of the President's cabinet, high-ranking military officers and veterans from the Civil War and Spanish–American War. The equestrian statue is located in the center of Sheridan Circle in the Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The bronze statue, surrounded by a plaza and park, is one of eighteen Civil War monuments in Washington, D.C., which were collectively listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The sculpture and surrounding park are owned and maintained by the National Park Service, a federal agency of the Interior Department.

<i>Bucky ONeill Monument</i> Spanish–American War memorial

The Bucky O'Neill Monument, also known as the Rough Rider Monument, was created by Solon Borglum and is an equestrian sculpture of Buckey O'Neill and honors a group of men who gallantly served their country during the Spanish–American War in 1898. It is located at Courthouse Plaza, Prescott, Arizona. It was dedicated on July 3, 1907 and was rededicated on June 6, 1982, and again on July 3, 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cesare Stea</span> American sculptor

Cesare Stea was an American sculptor and painter.

<i>End of the Trail</i> (Fraser) Statue by James Earle Fraser in Waupun, United States

The End of the Trail is a sculpture by James Earle Fraser. Fraser created the original version of the work in 1894, and he subsequently produced numerous replicas in both plaster and bronze. The sculpture depicts a weary Native American man, wearing only the remains of a blanket and carrying a spear. He is hanging limp as his weary horse with swollen eyes comes to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The wind blowing the horse's tail suggests they have their backs to the wind. The man in the statue is based on Seneca Chief John Big Tree, and the horse was adapted from one in another work, In the Wind. The statue is a commentary on the damage Euro-American settlement inflicted upon Native Americans. The main figure embodies the suffering and exhaustion of people driven from their native lands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelia Van Auken Chapin</span> American sculptor

Cornelia Van Auken Chapin was an American sculptor and animalier born in Waterford, Connecticut. She was known for her stone models of birds and animals, which she largely carved directly from life and without preliminary models or sketches.

<i>Prometheus</i> (Manship) Sculpture by Paul Manship in Manhattan, New York

Prometheus is a 1934 gilded, cast bronze sculpture by Paul Manship, located above the lower plaza at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Sanford</span>

Marion Sanford was an American sculptor known for her bronze portraits of women engaged in everyday domestic activities.

School of American Sculpture was an art school founded in New York City by Solon Borglum following the World War I, in about 1918, that lasted only shortly after Borglum's death in 1922.

<i>First Landing Party of the Founders of Newark</i> United States historic place

First Landing Party of the Founders of Newark is a marble monument with bas-relief and inscription by sculptor Gutzon Borglum (1867–1941) near the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey. It was dedicated in 1916. It was listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places in 1990 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 as part of the Public Sculpture in Newark, New Jersey Multiple Property Submission.

Gertrude Katherine Lathrop (1896–1986) was an American sculptor known for her medallion work and sculptures of small animals.

<i>William Dempster Hoard Sculpture</i> Bronze sculpture by Gutzon Borglum

William Dempster Hoard Sculpture is a bronze sculpture of former Wisconsin Governor William D. Hoard. The sculpture was created in 1922 by American sculptor Gutzon Borglum.

References

Notes

  1. Carrington, M. Marquette (March 1922). "Solon H. Borglum, Artist, Soldier and Patriot". Art and Archaeology: The Arts Throughout the Ages. 13 (3): 144. Retrieved 2010-03-22.
  2. "Solon H. Borglum Dies after Operation" (PDF). The New York Times. January 31, 1922.
  3. Library of Congress, Les Foyers du Soldat
  4. Howard Shaff and Audrey Karl Shaff, ‘’Six Wars at a Time: the life and times of Gutzon Borglum, Sculptor of Mt. Rushmore’’, (Sioux Falls, South Dakota: The Center For Western Studies, 1985) pp. 17-20.
  5. "Solon Borglum" on the American National Biography Online (subscription required)
  6. Paller, Orvill (October 1990). "I Have a Question: Artists James T. Harwood, Gutzon and Solon Borglum, and Cyrus Dallin are said by some to be associated with the Church. Were they members?". Ensign : 52–54. Retrieved 2013-02-05.
  7. Glenn B. Opitz, ed., Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers (Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo, 1983), p. 88. ISBN   0938290029
  8. Caffin, p. 149
  9. Borglum, Solon Hannibal (1969). "Solon Hannibal Borglum papers, 1886-1928". hdl.loc.gov. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  10. Solon Hannibal Borglum: Sculptor of the Prairie New Britain Museum of American Art
  11. "Deaths". Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. November 1968. Retrieved 28 August 2024. The Complete Archive
  12. "1925-1926" (PDF). The Register. Cornell eCommons. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  13. "Solon Hannibal Borglum papers,". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  14. "Oral history interview with Monica Borglum Davies, 1990 May 8-August 27". www.aaa.si.edu Archives of American Art . Smithsonian Institution . Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  15. Davies, pp. 182-84.
  16. "National Academicians | National Academy | National Academy Museum". Archived from the original on 2016-03-14. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
  17. France Army; United States Army (June 1919). "Report of the American Expeditionary Forces Art Training Center, Bellevue, Seine-et-Oise, March-June, 1919". The Online Books Page . Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  18. "Solon Hannibal Borglum". nationalacademy.emuseum.com. National Academy of Design . Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  19. "Solon Borglum". Phippen Museum . 23 April 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  20. "Solon H. Borglum". americanart.si.edu American Art Museum . Smithsonian . Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  21. Davies, pp.219-25.
  22. "Solon H. Borglum Dies After Operation" (PDF). New York Times. Jan 31, 1922.
  23. Davies, p. 242.
  24. "A. Mervyn Davies, an Author And Ex‐Secretary for Pulitzer". The New York Times . 25 December 1976. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  25. "A Finding Aid to the Solon H. Borglum and Borglum family papers, 1864-2002 | Digitized Collection".
  26. Solon Hannibal Borglum papers.
  27. History of American Sculpture (New York: Macmillan, 1903), pp. 478-83.
  28. Caffin, chap. 10, pp. 147-62.
  29. "Leonard Gordon Park". Archived from the original on 2011-11-10. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  30. Art inventories catalog Smithsonian American art museum
  31. The remarkable story of Solon Borglum (Sharlot Hall Museum)
  32. Caffin, p. 152, 160
  33. Davies, pp.267-269

Bibliography

Further reading