Author Archive
Pan & Minerva from 1916 ~ Two MacNeil “Bas Reliefs” from a Century Ago in San Francisco
Posted by: | CommentsPAN MINERVA
Two bas relief panels by Hermon A. MacNeil have been discovered. PAN on the left – MINERVA on the right.
They have remained virtually hidden for over 100 years.
The above article from 1916 accompanied the the photos of Pan and Minerva in The International Studio, Vol 59, p LVIII.
Documentation of Pan and Minerva has appeared in recent searches. Hermon A. MacNeil sculpted these bas reliefs over a century ago.
- Material: 2 terra cotta reliefs
- Size: 2 1/2 X 4 feet
- Mr. Hill Tolerton, Owner
- William C. Hays, Architect
- Location: 540 Sutter St., San Francisco
- Building designed as an Art establishment
- Made in Italian Renaissance style with an upper mezzanine level
- Patterned after the late Pan-Pacific Exposition courtyard of the Italian Building.
- The 2 reliefs no longer appear on the face of the building as was the design. [SEE Google street photo below of 540 Sutter Street today]
- The above images are the only record of the MacNeil work presently found.
Mr. Tolerton wanted the facade ornamented by two “sculptured placques”. He commissioned MacNeil to make these reliefs of Pan and Minerva to grace his new Art building.
One of Pan — the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr.
The other of Minerva — the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools, and commerce. She was the Etruscan counterpart to Greek Athena.
No trace of the MacNeil bas relief panels of Pan and Minerva at 540 Sutter Street, San Francisco in this 2020 street photo via Google maps. Perhaps they were originally in the space high above the doorway and window a century ago in what now appears as stucco finish. SO, … PAN & MINERVA still remain hidden in the 21st century — if they still exist at all!
THESE TWO ICONS MARKED TOLERTON’S NEW BUILDING AS AN ART CENTER. [ They do not appear in the street photo captured below from 2020 ]
SOURCES:
- “Two Bas Reliefs by Hermon A. MacNeil”, The International Studio, Ed: Charles Holmes, et. al. Vol.59, p. lviii. from Google Books on 1/3/2021 at https://books.google.com/books?id=q09aAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR58&dq=Pan+Minerva+san+francisco+Mr.+Hill+Tolerton+1916&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWheuZtYPuAhVWZc0KHWyZDScQ6AEwAHoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q=Pan%20Minerva%20san%20francisco%20Mr.%20Hill%20Tolerton%201916&f=false
- “A New San Francisco Gallery”, American Art News. Vol. XIV, No. 33, New York, May 20, 1916. p. 1.
Will Rogers By Jo Davidson 1939. Jo started as Studio Boy for Hermon A MacNeil in 1903 for $10 per week.
Jo Davidson was the “studio boy” for Hermon Atkins MacNeil in 1903.
Since 1939, Jo Davidson’s statue of
“Will Rogers”
has looked down on Senators and Congress members as they speak and are interviewed in the Capitol Statuary Hall.
Jo Davidson’s statue watched again today as raging Trump protestors turned into rioters (mixed with vigilantes) attacking the Capitol Building. [ breaking windows, carrying fire arms, vandalizing desks and offices, creating chaos and danger … ]
Senators were in the Constitutional process of certifying the votes of the Electoral College which authorizes the Inauguration of the 46th President on January 20, 2021.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In February CHECK BACK HERE at HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com for FOUR stories of Hermon MacNeil and Jo Davidson
BUT NOW
listen instead to our prized political sage of
HUMOR from 100 years ago:
(Then tell me if Will Rogers still speaks to us in 2021.)
WILL ROGERS QUOTES:
- “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers
- “Never miss a good chance to shut up.” – Will Rogers
- “Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.” – Will Rogers
- “I never met a man that I didn’t like.” – Will Rogers
- “Rumor travels faster, but it doesn’t stay put as long as truth.” – Will Rogers
- “Common sense ain’t common.” – Will Rogers
- “Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today” – Will Rogers
- “The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.” – Will Rogers
- “Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.” – Will Rogers
- “Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.” – Will Rogers
- “Do the best you can, and don’t take life too serious.” – Will Rogers
- “When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.” – Will Rogers
- “There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation.
The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.” – Will Rogers - The minute you read something that you can’t understand, you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer.” – Will Rogers
- “We can’t all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.” – Will Rogers
- “A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.” – Will Rogers
- “The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.” – Will Rogers
- “If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of Congress?” – Will Rogers
- “If stupidity got us in this mess, how come it can’t get us out.” – Will Rogers
- “A fool and his money are soon elected.” – Will Rogers
- “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” – Will Rogers
- “I’m not a real movie star. I’ve still got the same wife I started out with twenty-eight years ago.” – Will Rogers
- “Always drink upstream from the herd.” – Will Rogers
- “The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.” – Will Rogers
- “If you want to be successful, it’s just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing.” – Will Rogers
- “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” – Will Rogers
- “The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it in your back pocket.” – Will Rogers
- “The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.” – Will Rogers
- “Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know “why” I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way and some of the roads weren’t paved.” – Will Rogers
- “Ten men in our country could buy the whole world and ten million can’t buy enough to eat.” – Will Rogers
- “It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute.” – Will Rogers
- “An onion can make people cry, but there has never been a vegetable invented to make them laugh.” – Will Rogers
- “You know horses are smarter than people. You never heard of a horse going broke betting on people.” – Will Rogers
- “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.” – Will Rogers
- “The difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” – Will Rogers
- “I am not a member of any organized political party — I am a Democrat.” – Will Rogers
- “If you feel the urge, don’t be afraid to go on a wild goose chase. What do you think wild geese are for anyway?” – Will Rogers
- “The problem ain’t what people know. It’s what people know that ain’t so that’s the problem.” – Will Rogers
- “Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re actually paying for.” – Will Rogers
- “Buy land. They ain’t making any more of the stuff.” – Will Rogers
- “There are men running governments who shouldn’t be allowed to play with matches.” – Will Rogers
- “What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.” – Will Rogers
- “There is no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.” – Will Rogers
- “The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.” – Will Rogers
- “Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it’s not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago.”- Will Rogers
- “It is better for someone to think you’re a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” – Will Rogers
- “If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.” – Will Rogers
- “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.” – Will Rogers
- “There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works.” – Will Rogers
- “All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that’s an alibi for my ignorance.” – Will Rogers
CREDITS:
- Photo: Will Rogers Statue https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/timeline/image/will-rogers-jo-davidson-1938
- Will Rogers Quotes: https://inspirationfeed.com/will-rogers-quotes/
New Year Discovery: Another Bust by H. A. MacNeil
Posted by: | CommentsAs we begin the New Year of 2021, we have found a Bronze Bust of Samuel Longstreth Parrish by Hermon A. MacNeil. This work has graced Southampton Village, Long Island for a century, but was not been previously credited on this growing virtual gallery of MacNeil’s works. https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/
Bronze Bust of Samuel Longstreth Parrish by Hermon A. MacNeil.
“Samuel Parrish, a wealthy New York attorney, made Southampton his adoptive home at the end of the 19th century and became one of its most active citizens and generous benefactors until his death in 1932. During the boom years at the dawn of the 20th century, he was involved in every major civic project. He donated land for Southampton Hospital, helped to establish the Rogers Memorial Library, served briefly as village president (mayor) and founded the Parrish Art Museum, which he considered his crowning achievement. He commissioned Stanford White to build a house for his mother on First Neck Lane and made many improvements to the Rogers Mansion, which was his home from 1899 until his death.” — Copy courtesy of the Southampton Historical Museum.
Samuel Longstreth Parrish standing inside his art museum. [Photo postcard of Samuel Parrish in his Museum. Circa 1907. SOURCE: Arts and Architect Quarterly, at https://aaqeastend.com/contents/woodward-local-postcard-sampling/ on 1/1/2021]
Samuel L. Parrish Art Museum, 1898. Source: www.southamptoncenter.org
Parrish Art Museum ~ 2017
The original idea for the museum came to Samuel Parrish, who had studied the Italian Renaissance at Harvard College, while he was on a trip through Italy in 1896 gathering pieces and reproductions of Greek and Roman sculpture. Parrish commissioned fellow Southampton summer resident Grosvenor Atterbury to design the museum.
Related posts:
- Part 2: “Primitive Indian Music” ~ 1894 bronze casting discovered! Is this an early prototype of 1901 “Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit.” ??? (7) A recent inquiry from James Dixon has revealed a previously…
- MacNeil Park – College Point, Queens, NY (6) Hermon A. MacNeil Park in College Point, Queens, offers 29-acre…
- 1901 Pan-American Exposition – Buffalo, New York ~~ “The Rainbow City” (6) Between 1893 and 1905 Hermon Atkins MacNeil and his sculptures…
- Will YOU HELP this Patriot return to College Point? (6) Recognize this Patriot? You can HELP HIM return to College…
- “James Monroe” ~ ~ Hermon MacNeil’s Sculpture of a US President who died on the 4th of July (6) In 1931, exactly 100 years after James Monroe‘s death (b. April..
Christmas Eve 1895.
Chicago, Illinois
There was a Wedding in …
Hermon MacNeil’s Studio
~ 1733 Marquette Building ~
Married in a private ceremony on Christmas Day Hermon and Carol MacNeil had a reception in the Marquette Building
Carol Louise Brooks as a young girl. An Etching by William Harry Warren Bicknell. (about 1891)
~
Every Christmas we remember this
Special Christmas Day Wedding of two sculptors.
They met in Chicago, Carol’s hometown as they sculpted the “White City” of The Worlds Columbian Exposition (aka. Chicago Worlds Fair). That event opened in May 1893.
Hermon made figures on the Electricity Building. Carol (Carrie) was a student of Lorado Taft and became a “White Rabbit”, that group of select females permitted to sculpt as the deadline for opening day loomed closer.
Two years later Hermon, age 29, proposed to Carol (Carrie) just 24. She accepted. They got a Marriage License on Christmas Eve and used it the next day. Several weeks later they sailed to Rome where Hermon had accepted the Reinhart Fellowship and they both continued to learn sculpture for 3 years. And then spent a a fourth year in Paris.
~ Christmas Day 1895 ~
In 1895, Amy Aldis Bradley wrote of Hermon MacNeil:
“…The young sculptor was married on Christmas Day, and sailed for Rome on Wednesday, and is, on the whole, the most happy young man I know.” (http://marquette.macfound.org/slide/herman-macneil/ )
One hundred and twenty-five Christmas Days ago, Hermon Atkins MacNeil and Carol Louise Brooks were united in marriage in Chicago, Illinois by Rev. Edward F. Williams, a Congregational Minister. They purchased their Marriage License on Christmas Eve Day 1895 & made their Vows on Christmas. [CLICK HERE to See their License]
Related Post: The-Most-Happy-Young-Man-I-Know/
Both Hermon and Carol were sculptors who worked on the 1983 Chicago World’s Fair (World’s Columbian Exposition). Just days earlier MacNeil received word that he had won the Rinehart Roman Scholarship. (Carol had also studied sculpture with both Lorado Taft and Frederick William MacMonnies). Within the week, the pair left for Rome, passing three years there (1896-1899). It was a romantic time of study together under the same masters. With frugality, the income of Hermon’s Rinehart scholarship supported them both. They travelled through Italy occasionally bartering a room for sculpture. They spend a fourth year in Paris.”
According to information from the MacArthur Foundation (current owner and curator of the Marquette Building), Amy Aldis Bradley’s complete words in 1895 to Peter Brooks:
After commissioning MacNeil for the exterior bronzes, Aldis wrote to Peter Brooks, “McNeil’s [sic] panels are being placed in position. It is greatly to their and his credit that these bas-reliefs have won for him the Roman [Reinhart] Fellowship. The Commission, choosing him as the best of the very young men…The young sculptor was married on Christmas Day, and sailed for Rome on Wednesday, and is, on the whole, the most happy young man I know. He is very grateful to the owners of the Marquette Building.” (http://marquette.macfound.org/slide/herman-macneil/ )
MacNeil Christmas Cards
Posted by: | CommentsHermon MacNeil often made Christmas Cards that featured his own drawings and studio images.
MacNeil Christmas card from 1922.
Here’s a Card from 1922 ==>>
This pencil sketch proclaiming “Merry Christmas 1922” appears reminiscent of MacNeil’s 
“Sun Vow” 
In that composition, a Native Chief, possibly Sioux, coaches a young warrior through a rite of passage — shooting an arrow into the of the sun.
In MacNeil’s 1922 Christmas drawing, a similar pair of figures wave a banner of seasons greetings. Their presence seems a reprise of the Sun Vow sculpture.
While that was over a century ago, here’s what we can know today:
- We know being an artist, MacNeil often carried and kept sketchbooks.
- We know he would sit in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair with his sketchbook.
- We know he sketched D. L Moody at an interdenominational Sunday Worship in Wild Bill’s Arena (since no Sunday shows were allowed and Moody rented the venue).
- We know he traveled, sketched and sculpted on his trip to the Southwest territories in 1895 (New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado).
- We know he formed clay and plaster images there; and he shipped many back to Chicago.
- We know that his memory of Native images dominated his sculptures for the next ten years.
I suspect that the idea for this card sprang up from the artist’s visual memory, perhaps, revived from an old sketchbook. A dusty record of images that he first saw three decades earlier at the Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893.
Here’s More from this website:
“Native American Themes: His first introduction to native subjects came through Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. During the 1893 Worlds Fair, Buffalo Bill’s troupe performed in a carnival setting outside the main entrance. Fascinated, MacNeil’s artist-eye and imagination took every opportunity to see the show and sketch the ceremonies and rituals of Indian life — MacNeil often carried a sketch book. He latter befriended Black Pipe, a Sioux warrior from the show, who he found down-and-out on the Chicago streets after the carnival midways of the Fair had closed. MacNeil invited Black Pipe to model for him and assist in studio labors, which he did for over a year. Inspired by these native subjects and encouraged by Edward Everett Ayers, MacNeil found a respect for this vanishing Native culture and made subsequent trips to the southwest. When the Marquette Building was constructed, MacNeil was awarded a commission to complete Four Bas Relief Panels of over the main entrance. His work depicts four scenes from Marquette’s trip through the Great Lakes region.”
“In the summer of 1895, along with Hamlin Garland (a writer) and C. F. Browne (a painter), he traveled to the four-corners territories (now, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah) seeing American Indians (Navajo, and Moqui — now Hopi) in their changing cultural element on various reservations. While there, he was asked to sculpt, out of available materials, a likeness of Chief Manuelito. The Navajo warrior had died in despair after being imprisoned for four years as a renegade by the U. S. Government (Col. Kit Carson) twenty-five years earlier. Manuelito’s likeness (click here), made of available materials, brought tears to his widow’s eyes, and remains an object of cultural pride in Gallup, New Mexico to this day.” SOURCE: Click HERE
