| The Spirit of Life | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Artist | Daniel Chester French |
| Year | 1914 |
| Type | Bronze |
| Location | Saratoga Springs, NY (smaller castings elsewhere) |
| 43°4′44.5″N73°47′7.2″W / 43.079028°N 73.785333°W | |
The Spirit of Life is a 1914 sculpture in Saratoga Springs, New York, by the American sculptor Daniel Chester French.
The Spirit of Life began as a commission for a memorial to the famous Wall Street financier Spencer Trask (1844–1909). Trask was a summer resident in Saratoga Springs and a founder of the committee which was charged with renewing the city's reputation as a health resort. The commission for the monument came from George Foster Peabody who was a friend of Trask's. Henry Bacon, who collaborated with French on the Lincoln Memorial, designed the setting for French's statue. [1]
The statue stands in the heart of Congress Park on a shallow niche of white marble with a balustraded terrace above and an oblong lagoon, set in marble and surrounded with verdant shrubbery, green lawns and a wealth of flowers below. The statue is a figure of a winged woman, hands moving high above her head (the model has been said to be Audrey Munson but recent Daniel Chester French scholarship shows that Hettie Anderson posed). [2] [3] The figure represents Hygieia, the giver of health, who usually appeared in Greek and Roman art accompanying her father, Asklepios, the god of medicine. She is often shown offering nourishment to a serpent entwined on the staff which Asklepios carries. In French's conception, Hygieia holds aloft a shallow bowl and in the other hand clasps a pine bough, a reference to the towering pines on the grounds of the Trasks' estate. The goddess is poised lightly on a rock and a stream of water pours from its cleft. The pedestal is a sculptured reproduction of the tufaceous deposits seen about the orifice of many of Saratoga's famous springs. [4] The inscription on the statue reads, "To do good and serve my fellow man." [5]
The Spirit of Life is one of French's finest "active" statues. The flow of the angel's robe and the position of her right foot gives a great deal of motion. Several smaller castings of the statue were made and authorized by French; six were made between 1923 and 1931.
It is considered a contributing object to the National Historic Landmark District that includes the park and Canfield Casino.
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.
Yaddo is an artists' community located on a 400-acre (160 ha) estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment." On March 11, 2013 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
Edward Clark Potter was an American sculptor best known for his equestrian and animal statues. His most famous works are the marble lions, nicknamed Patience and Fortitude, in front of the New York Public Library Main Branch
Beneficence is a 1937 bronze statue on the campus of Ball State University, located in Muncie, Indiana. The statue, by sculptor Daniel Chester French, is referred to as Benny by students.
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.
Audrey Marie Munson was an American artist's model and film actress, considered to be "America's first supermodel." In her time, she was variously known as "Miss Manhattan", the "Panama–Pacific Girl", the "Exposition Girl" and "American Venus." She was the model or inspiration for more than twelve statues in New York City, and many others elsewhere. Munson appeared in four silent films, including unclothed in Inspiration (1915). She was one of the first American actresses to appear nude in a non-pornographic film.
William Ordway Partridge was an American sculptor, teacher and author. Among his best-known works are the Shakespeare Monument in Chicago, the equestrian statue of General Grant in Brooklyn, the Pietà at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, and the Pocahontas statue in Jamestown, Virginia.
The Piccirilli brothers were an Italian family of renowned marble carvers and sculptors who carved many of the most significant marble sculptures in the United States, including Daniel Chester French’s colossal Abraham Lincoln (1920) in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
Isidore Konti was a Vienna-born sculptor. He began formal art studies at the age of 16 when he entered the Imperial Academy in Vienna, where he studied under Edmund von Hellmer. In 1886, he won a scholarship that allowed him to study in Rome for two years. While there he developed a love of Renaissance art that was to affect the nature of his mature sculpture. Upon returning to Austria, Konti worked as an architectural modeler.
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.
Canfield Casino and Congress Park is a 17-acre (6.9 ha) site in Saratoga Springs, New York, United States. It was formerly the site of the Congress Hotel, a large resort hotel, and the Congress Spring Bottling Plant, as well as Canfield Casino, which together brought Saratoga Springs international fame as a health spa and gambling site. At the peak of its popularity it was a place where the wealthy, major gamblers and stars of the entertainment world mingled. The park's artwork includes a statue by Daniel Chester French and landscape design by Frederick Law Olmsted, among others.
Spencer Trask was an American financier, philanthropist, and venture capitalist. Beginning in the 1870s, Trask began investing and supporting entrepreneurs, including Thomas Edison's commercial production of the electric light bulb and his electricity network. In 1896 he reorganized The New York Times, becoming its majority shareholder and chairman.
Ernest Moore Viquesney was an American sculptor best known for his popular World War I monument Spirit of the American Doughboy.
Straus Park is a small landscaped park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at the intersection of Broadway, West End Avenue, and 106th Street.
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, Washington, D.C., United States, the statue was unveiled in 1922. The work follows in the Beaux Arts and American Renaissance style traditions.
Wisconsin is a statue on top of the Wisconsin Capitol Building created by Daniel Chester French. The statue is the highest point in Madison, on top of the tallest building in Madison.
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.
Hettie Anderson was an African-American art model and muse who posed for American sculptors and painters including Daniel Chester French, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John La Farge, Anders Zorn, Bela Pratt, Adolph Alexander Weinman, and Evelyn Beatrice Longman. Among Anderson's high-profile likenesses are the winged Victory figure on the Sherman Memorial at Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan, New York City and $20 gold coins known as the Saint-Gaudens double eagle. Theodore Roosevelt deemed Victory "one of the finest figures of its kind." Saint-Gaudens described Anderson as "certainly the handsomest model I have ever seen of either sex" and considered her "Goddess-like."
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.
The Lafayette Memorial is a public memorial located in Brooklyn's Prospect Park in New York City. The memorial, designed by sculptor Daniel Chester French and architect Henry Bacon, was dedicated in 1917 and consists of a bas-relief of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette alongside a groom and a horse.
