MacNeil Sculpture “Meets Me in St. Louis”
ByOn a recent trip to Saint Louis, Missouri to visit family, I was met by not by “Louis” but by “Hermon”
For the last 106 years (since the Worlds Fair inspired the song “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis”) a sculpture by Hermon A. MacNeil has been quietly greeting visitors at the front door of the St Louis Art Museum. The piece resides high above the center doors at the main entrance of the building.
"ARS ARTIUM OMNIUM" is a MacNeil creation for the 1904 St Louis Worlds Fair
Saint Louis Art Museum main entrance. The MacNeil sculpture rests above the center doors recessed between the center columns.
The building itself represents one of MacNeil’s first collaborations of with renowned architect, Cass Gilbert. His last project with Cass Gilbert was the US Supreme Court Building in 1933.
The Cass Gibert Society website offers images of his lifetime of architectural achievements.
The Saint Louis World’s Fair of 1904 was formally known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. It was an international exposition commemorating the Louisiana purchase of 1803. It was delayed from a planned opening in 1903 to 1904 to allow for the full-scale participation by more states and foreign countries. The song, “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” was inspired by the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair.
The Palace of Fine Art, designed by architect Cass Gilbert, featured a grand interior sculpture court based on the Roman Baths of Caracalla. Standing at the top of Art Hill, it now serves as the home of the Saint Louis Art Museum. … Gilbert was also responsible for … (Saint Louis Public Library), state capitol buildings (the Minnesota, Arkansas and West Virginia State Capitols, for example) as well as public architectural icons like the United States Supreme Court building. His public buildings in the Beaux Arts style reflect the optimistic American sense that the nation was heir to Greek democracy, (Wikipedia).
The MacNeil work was a part of that “Palace of Fine Art” and his abilities in the Beaux Arts style seemed to seal his collaborative link to many projects grown from Cass Gilbert’s genius. The inscription “ARS ARTIUM OMNIUM” translates literally from the Latin as “the Art of all Arts.”
Above the columns of the Saint Louis Art Museum are inscribed the words, “DEDICATED TO ART AND FREE TO ALL – MDCDIII.” That Free to All spirit remains today in that admission is free through a subsidy from the ZMD.
A New York Times article offers editorial on “free art” http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/arts/design/22admi.html?_r=1
The SLAM is one of the principal U.S. art museums, visited by up to a half million people every year. MacNeil’s art is among some of the first to silently greet them.
The Art Museum at Forest Park in Saint. Louis, Missouri at night. on 27 September 2008. (credit: Kitz000 - Matt Kitces at Wikipedia Commons ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StLouisArtMuseum.jpg
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