Mary McGuinness. Such was the origin of a master in sculpture, Augustus Saint Gaudens. His parents came to America when he was an infant, and after a short stay in Boston took up their residence in New York City. Augustus Saint Gaudens attended school until he was thirteen. Then he was apprenticed to a cameo cutter named Avet. After three years’ service he left his master and found employment with a shell cameo cutter named Le Breton, with whom he worked for several years. During this time young Saint Gaudens was studying drawing at night; first at Cooper Union, and then for two years at the National Academy of Design.

Augustus Saint Gaudens was always a thoughtful, quiet youth, with extraordinary power of concentration. He pursued the art of modeling with great enthusiasm. It was said of him that his sense of form and of objects in relief was so vivid that with his eyes closed he could fairly “see with his fingers.” His cameo cutting naturally assisted him in the perfection of art in high and low relief.

When twenty years old Saint Gaudens was already a well trained artist. He went to Paris and worked in the School of Fine Arts in the studio of M. Jouffroy. There he studied the human figure in all phases, and quickly mastered it. A residence of several years in Italy followed, with constant art activity and steady artistic growth. He came back to the United States in 1874, and his first work was a bust in marble of William M. Evarts. Then came a commission for a large decorative relief for St. Thomas’ Church, New York City, and in 1878 he began work on the statue of Admiral Farragut that now stands in Madison Square, New York City, which is one of the most widely known and admired of all his works.

The years that followed were full of distinguished achievements. His “Lincoln,” which was unveiled in Lincoln Park, Chicago, in 1887, has been hailed as the greatest portrait statue in the United States.

Saint Gaudens was not only the most skilful of American sculptors, but also the most versatile. This will be appreciated by anyone who looks first at the Farragut statue, then at the severe, imposing character of Deacon Chapin, a statue that is often called “The Puritan.” Let him then contrast the stirring Shaw Memorial, on Boston Common, with the strange, mysteriously beautiful figure in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D. C., that has been called variously “Grief,” “Death,” and “The Peace of God.”

Saint Gaudens enjoyed the distinction of being America’s leading sculptor for many years before he died. His life was crowned with honors, sweetened by many fine friendships, and enriched and mellowed by broad, liberal, mature art intelligence. He was a great master of art in thought and in expression. He died in New York City in 1907.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36
COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

DEATH AND THE YOUNG SCULPTOR. by Daniel Chester French

DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH

Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course

Nature smiled on Daniel Chester French. All the circumstances of his birth and breeding conspired to help his development. He was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1850. Among many well known relatives he numbered Daniel Webster and John Greenleaf Whittier. His ancestors were men who stood high in the communities in which they lived. His father was a lawyer, a judge, and assistant secretary of the United States treasury. He was always interested in public welfare, and was known for his good taste and good works. His descendants said that he “beautified every place in which he lived.”

Daniel Chester French showed ability at an early age, but no particular leaning toward sculpture. He was simply a bright, good-looking boy, with a liking for outdoor life and exercise. One day, when about nineteen years old, during a period of work on his father’s farm, he showed his parents a queer figure of a frog that he had cut out of a turnip; “Daniel, there is your career!” were the words that expressed the feelings of both father and mother. The farm was near Concord. There dwelt Miss May Alcott, the “Amy” of “Little Women,” and an artist of some ability. She encouraged young French in his study of drawing and modeling, and he plunged into his art career with an enthusiasm that bordered on boyish frenzy. His nature was ardent and poetic, and it carried him into forms of expression that were doomed to disappointment. The best thing for him was a visit that he made to the veteran sculptor J. Q. A. Ward. This took place when he was staying with relatives in Brooklyn, New York, and it opened the boy’s eyes to the fuller meaning of sculpture. Months of earnest work followed, during which Daniel French’s talents rapidly ripened.

When he was only twenty-three years old he received a commission of real national importance, that of modeling the statue of “The Minute Man.” This interesting piece of sculpture, now well known, was unveiled at Concord in 1875. In celebration of it Ralph Waldo Emerson and George William Curtis made speeches, and James Russell Lowell read a poem. At this time Daniel French had sailed for Italy, where he remained for a period in study. In 1879 he modeled a bust of Emerson from life—a work so vivid and lifelike that the poet-philosopher said, “The more it resembles me, the worse it looks,” and then added, with a nod of approval, “That is the face that I shave.”

French’s art took rapid strides. He is known today equally well by his fine portrait busts and his great allegorical compositions. One of the most imposing of his compositions is the great heroic female figure entitled “Alma Mater,” seated at the approach to the library of Columbia University, New York. No American sculptor is better known than Mr. French in his home land or abroad. He bears high honors on both continents.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36
COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

COPYRIGHT 1903 THE MACMILLAN CO.

NATHAN HALE—FREDERICK MACMONNIES

REPRODUCED FROM “AMERICAN SCULPTURE” BY LORADO TAFT

FREDERICK MACMONNIES

Monograph Number Four in The Mentor Reading Course

To many Americans the name of Frederick MacMonnies became known by the imposing Columbian Fountain at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The composition was a majestic barge, on which Columbia sat enthroned on high. At the prow was a fine figure of Fame with trumpet upraised. On the stern Father Time watched the progress of the barge, which was urged on