Daniel Chester French (1850 - 1931)

Born 20 Apr 1850 in Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Adams French — married 17 Jul 1888 in Washington D.C.

Died 7 Oct 1931 at age 81 in Stockbridge, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States

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Biography

Daniel French is Notable.

Born into an affluent family, Daniel Chester French was able to follow his dream of becoming an artist. Among his family’s friends and neighbors in Massachusetts were the authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Louisa May Alcott. It is said that Louisa’s sister May Alcott pushed the young French towards becoming a sculptor.

Early on, Chester, as French was called, studied human anatomy and drawing then spent a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but his really formative education had to come from his being able to spend several years in Florence, Italy. He lived with the family of sculptor Preston Powers while working for and studying under Thomas Ball, another Massachusetts native, and an eccentric member of the artistic colony in Florence that included Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Hiram Powers.

With Ralph Waldo Emerson's assistance, Daniel Chester French received a commission to create the statue known as The Minute Man. The bronze sculpture was Chester’s first work that brought public acclaim. It stands on the centenary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord and was dedicated 100 years after the beginning of America’s Revolutionary War in 1875 when Chester was 25 years old. The Minute Man would become the symbol for America’s defense bonds, stamps, and posters.

Lincoln Statue by Daniel Chester French

Commissioned works of sculpture soon became commonplace for the young artist and he was able to afford his own studio as his reputation grew. In 1886 Chester moved to Paris, France, and studied Beaux-Arts sculpture for a nearly a year.

In 1888 Daniel Chester French would marry his first cousin, Mary Adams French and a year later they would have a daughter, Margaret, who would become an artist in her own right.

In 1897, French would move his family into a new home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He had his good friend and sometimes collaborator, Henry Bacon design the home, that included his work studio and where Chester would live out his life. He named the home “Chesterwood”. Today, Chesterwood is an historic site owned and operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

His most famous sculpture, and it’s difficult to choose, is most likely the massive marble sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln that resides in Washington, D. C.’s Lincoln Memorial. This work was dedicated in 1922.

Daniel Chester French would pass away in 1931.

Here you’ll find a video of French’s life: Youtube Link

In 1940, he was featured on a 5-cent postage stamp. ^[1]

Notable Works:

Following is a list of Daniel Chester French’s notable works:

Notable public monuments:

• Minute Man (Concord) (fr) at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, (1874)

• Bust of Major General William Francis Bartlett at Memorial Hall, Harvard University, (1881)

• The John Harvard Monument, Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, (1884)

• Lewis Cass, National Statuary Hall, Washington DC, (1889)

• Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Alice Cogswell (1889), Gallaudet University, Washington, DC

• Thomas Starr King monument San Francisco, California, (1891)

• Statue of the Republic, the colossal centerpiece of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. His 24-foot gilt-bronze reduced version made in 1918 survives in Chicago.

• John Boyle O'Reilly Memorial, intersection of Boylston Street and Westland Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, (1897)

• Rufus Choate memorial, Old Suffolk County Court House, Boston, Massachusetts, (1898)

• Richard Morris Hunt Memorial, on the perimeter wall of Central Park, at 5th Avenue at 70th Street, opposite the Frick Collection, in New York City, (1900)

• Commodore George H. Perkins Monument at the New Hampshire State House, Concord, New Hampshire (1902)

• Alma Mater (1903), on the campus of Columbia University in New York City

• Wendell Phillips Memorial, Public Garden in Boston, Massachusetts

• The Four Continents - Asia, America, Europe, and Africa, a group of four statues outside the National Museum of the American Indian at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, Manhattan, NYC (1907)

• Casting Bread Upon the Waters - George Robert White Memorial, Public Garden in Boston, Massachusetts

• Samuel Spencer, first president of Southern Railway, located in front of Goode Building (Norfolk Southern offices) on Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, (1909).

• August Meyer Memorial, 10th and The Paseo, Kansas City, Missouri (1909) • Statue of General James Oglethorpe located in Chippewa Square, Savannah, Georgia (1910)

• Standing Lincoln at the Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln, Nebraska, (1912)

• Brooklyn and Manhattan, seated figures from the Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York, (1915)

• Minuteman, Henry Bacon designer, Jno. Williams, Inc. (NY) founder, Danville, Illinois. (1915)

• The Spirit of Life, memorial to Spencer Trask, in Saratoga Springs, New York at Congress Park, 1915

• Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial (1914–22), executed by the Piccirilli Brothers.

• Samuel Francis du Pont Memorial Fountain, Dupont Circle, Washington DC (1921)

• Alfred Tredway White Memorial, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Henry Bacon architect (1921)

• Russell Alger Memorial Fountain, Grand Circus Park, Detroit, Michigan (1921).

• Gale Park War Memorial & Park, Exeter, New Hampshire (1922)

• Bust of Washington Irving and reliefs of Boabdil and Rip Van Winkle for the Washington Irving Memorial, Irvington, New York, (1927)

• Beneficence, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. (1930)

• William Henry Seward Memorial in Florida, New York (1930)

• Death and the Wounded Soldier aka Death and Youth, The Chapel of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire

• James Woods, “Uncle Jimmy” Green, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. (1924)

• Gen. William Franklin Draper, Draper Memorial Park, Milford, Massachusetts. (1912)

Architectural sculpture:

• Peace and Vigilance (alternatively America at War and Peace) US Customhouse & Post Office, St. Louis, Missouri, Alfred B. Mullett architect (1876–1882)

• Pediment, New Hampshire Historic Society Building, Concord, New Hampshire, Guy Lowell, architect (1909–1911)

• Bronze doors, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts, McKim, Mead & White architects, (1884–1904)

• Justice, Appellate Division Courthouse of New York State, NYC, James Brown Lord architect (1900)

• Four Continents, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, NYC, Cass Gilbert architect, (1904, with Adolph A. Weinman)

• Progress of the State, quadriga, Six statues on entablature, Minnesota State Capitol, St. Paul, Minnesota, Cass Gilbert architect (1907)

• Jurisprudence and Commerce, Federal Building, Cleveland, Ohio, Arnold Brunner architect (1910)

• John Hampden, and Edward I, two attic figures, Cuyahoga County Courthouse, Cleveland, Ohio, Lehman & Schmidt architects (1908, 1911)

• Attic Figures, pediment, Brooklyn Museum, NYC, McKim, Mead & White architects (1912)

• Lady Wisconsin, figure surmounting the dome, Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin, George B. Post architect (1914)

• Abraham Lincoln (1920), Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, Henry Bacon architect (1914–22)

• Peace, sculpture for the Admiral George Dewey Triumphal Arch and Colonnade that was built in Madison Square in Manhattan, New York City in 1900.

• DeWitt Clinton; Alexander Hamilton; and John Jay. Three statues prepared in 1902 for the New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry Building at 65 Liberty Street. The building was declared a landmark in 1977.

• Greek Epic; Lyric Poetry, and Religion. Sculptures for the 1908 Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences building on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, New York.

• Power and Wisdom. Sculpture for the 1919 First World War Memorial. Since destroyed.

Cemetery monuments:

• Death and the Sculptor, a memorial for the grave of the sculptor Martin Milmore in the Forest Hills cemetery, Boston; this received a medal of honor at Paris, in 1900. (1893)

• Clark Memorial, Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, (1894)

• Chapman Memorial, Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, (1897)

• Angel of Peace - George Robert White, Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, (1898)

• Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial, Council Bluffs, Iowa. Often referred to as the "Black Angel". (1918)

• Memory, the Marshall Field Memorial, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, Henry Bacon, architect (1906)

• Slocum Memorial, Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

• Melvin Memorial, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts, Henry Bacon, architect (1906–08)

Selected museum pieces:

• The Angel of Death and the Sculptor, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City

• Memory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, marble carved by the Piccirilli Brothers, 1917–19, from a bronze of 1886-87, revised in 1909.

• Mourning Victory, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City

• And the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men That They Were Fair…, For French, this was an unusually erotic sculpture depicting the verse from Genesis whereby a fallen angel seduces a mortal woman thus producing the mythical Nephilim, Corcoran Gallery of Art; Washington DC, signed and dated 1923.

Miscellaneous pieces:

• The Chicago Incendiary — edition of a small bisque statuette depicting the cow alleged to have started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871

• The Minute Man — depicted on a US postage stamp issued in 1925, commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord

• Bust of John Brewster, who endowed Brewster Academy in 1887.

Sources

1. ↑ Smithsonian National Postal Museum

• Encyclopedia Britannica

• Encyclopedia.com

• Met Museum

• Wikipedia: Chesterwood (Massachusetts)

• "New Hampshire Births and Christenings, 1714-1904," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FDJN-BHC : 12 December 2014), Daniel Chester French, 20 Apr 1850; citing EXETER TWP,ROCKINGHAM,NEW HAMPSHIRE; FHL microfilm 1,000,937.

• "Massachusetts State Census, 1865," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQC6-258 : 2 April 2016), Daniel C French in household of Henry F French, Cambridge, Ward 01, Middlesex, Massachusetts; State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 954,567.

• "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCY3-TB6 : 4 December 2014), Daniel C. French in entry for Margaret French, 03 Aug 1889; citing Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, ; FHL microfilm 1,428,242.

• Find A Grave: Memorial #366

See also:

• Wikipedia: Daniel Chester French

• Wikidata: Item Q720910, en:Wikipedia