WELCOME to the “Hermon A. MacNeil” — Virtual Gallery & Museum !
~ This Gallery celebrates Hermon Atkins MacNeil, American sculptor of the Beaux Arts School. MacNeil led a generation of sculptors in capturing many fading Native American images and American history in the realism of this classic style.
~ World’s Fairs, statues, public monuments, coins, and buildings across to country. Hot-links (on the lower right) lead to photos & info of works by MacNeil.
~ Hundreds of stories and photos posted here form this virtual MacNeil Gallery of works all across the U.S.A. New York to New Mexico — Oregon to South Carolina.
~ 2016 marked the 150th Anniversary of Hermon MacNeil’s birth on February 27,
Take a Virtual Journey
Since 2010 this website has transported viewers through the years and miles between 100’s of Hermon MacNeil’s statues & monuments throughout the USA.
For over one hundred years these sculptures have graced our parks, boulevards, and parkways; buildings, memorials, and gardens; campuses, capitols, and civic centers; museums, coinage, and private collections.
PERHAPS, you walk or drive by one of his public sculptures daily. HERE, you can gain awareness of this great sculptor and his many works. Maybe there are some near you! CHECK HERE!
And thereby flame Jo’s natural talent & burning desire
to become a sculptor.
And through his gentle personality and kindness,
MacNeil showedJorespect
and filled some of Jo’searly void of approval
being a FATHER FIGURE unlike Jo’s own Father,
and MacNeil also affirmed Jo’s early exhibit FIGURE of
“David”, the Jewish Boy, fighting an invisible GOLIATH.
And then decades later when
Jo Davidson’s fame and career
had eclipsed even that ofMacNeil
or any of his altier assistants — John Gregory or Henri Crenier —
Jo chose to return to honor his first teacher
by sculpting him in clay
andimmortalizinghim in BRONZE.
AND NOW WE KNOW, THAT IS JUST WHAT
HE DID !
This bust is Just Gorgeous
An amazing piece and
a more amazing discovery —
for me and this website
after being out of view
for over 70 years.
We just Love IT !
[Dan Neil Leininger: webmaster]
JO DAVIDSON’S LETTER OF SYMPATHY
On Nov. 6, 1947. Jo sent letter of sympathy to Cecelia MacNeil, Hermon’s widow expressing his heartbreak at Hermon’s passing
INTERESTING FACTS in this letter:
Jo Davidson made this sculpture in the year 1945.
He shares his heartbreak over the death.
He remembers Hermon’s happiness
He will exhibit the bust for the Art World to see & remember
He wants Cecelia to come the Exhibition and see the bust.
Jo and Flo invited Cecelia to their home to her to visit.
Cecelia was an RN
— an Army Nurse during WW I .
She nursed Carol Brooks until she died
on July 22, 1944.
She nursed Hermon as well four years later until he died
on October 2, 1947.
PERSONAL FACTS:
I am DANIEL NEIL LEININGER. My middle name comes from my mother’s maiden name — “McNeil“.
I was born in 1945 the same year this bust was made.
(June 30, 1945 Daniel Neil Leininger is born in Saint Louis, Missouri)
I am the same age as the bust. (just not as good looking)!
I was 27 months-old when Hermon died. I never saw Hermon MacNeil’s face until this BUST arrived.
Qurious QUESTIONs:
SO did JO make this portrait Bust of HERMON in Jan to April 1945, or NOV-DEC, 1945?
Before or after his 2nd Heart attack in San Francisco?
TIMELINE around Jo’s Bust of
Hermon MacNeil
TIMELINE of Events when Bust was made:
Source: Between Sittings … pp. 344-346. (Events from Jo’s narrative. Some public dates filled in)
April 12, 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt died. Jo got the call at Lahaska that afternoon. Jo had known FDR since 1933 when he sculpted the first bust of him White House. He sculpted two inaugural Medals for FDR.
April 18, 1945Ernie Pyle killed in action. Jo made his bust in 1942
April 22, 1945Jo Davidson and Florence travel (fly) to Los Angeles., Says he is exhausted. Jo is distressed self-dosing on nitroglycerin tablets
April 24, 1945 Jo Davidson has a 2nd heart attack on the opening evening of the United Nations Conference.
April 25, 1945Jo Davidson is in St. Mary”s Hospital in San Francisco under an oxygen tent.
April25,1945 to June 26, 1945 — United Nations Organizational Conference in San Francisco
Aug. 14, 1945 Florence tells Jo of Victory-in-Japan Day news report on radio in while he remains in hospital.
Sept. – Oct. 1945 For the next Two months Jo was recouping at the Ranch of Ralph Stagpole in Cloverdale CA. The Stagpoles took in Jo, his nurse, and Florence and helped him get back to health.
Oct. 1945.Jo and Flossie returned to their home in Lahaska, NY
Nov. 6, 1947. Jo sends letter of sympathy to Cecelia MacNeil, Hermon’s widow expressing his heart break at Hermon’s passing
Oct. 2, 1947 DEATH: Hermon Atkins MacNeil dies at his home in College Point.
Nov. 25, 1947 BUST EXHIBITED ~~ National Institute of Arts and Letters – Retrospective Exhibition of Jo Davidson’s Work. This bust was a part of that Exhibition
1951 Jo Davidson’s health continues to deteriorate
1951 Jo’s friends Andre Gide & Robert Flaherty died … and Sinclair Lewis
Jan. 2, 1952 Jo Davidson dies at his home in Becheron, France.
FYI
I have ordered a plain black wooden pillar stand (30′ X 12″ X 12″). It will offer a fitting display for this wonderful tribute to
Hermon A. MacNeil(1866-1947)
Beaux Arts sculptor of Indians and Monuments
HERMON MacNEIL AS HE APPEARED ABOUT 1945
Hermon Atkins MacNeil ~ About 1945 ~ when Jo Davidson sculpted him. Seated outside of his studio in College Point, Queens, NYC. [ Credit: Kenilworth Historical Society donated by Joel Rosenkranz of Conner – Rosenkranz, LLC. ]
Hermon MacNeilcontinued making Historical Subjects, World’s Fairs, and Monuments as he had for 20 years (1893-1912).
[ Photos and hot-links to MORE MacNeilworks appear at the end of this post …⇓ ]
Jo Davidson after a decade of searching and wandering, to fulfill some inner talent,
he discovered his “Sculptor Within.”
Review: Jo made repeated attempts (1903-7) at studying the “Beaux Arts”style at the Art Students League of New York, learning it “hands-on” in the MacNeil Studio with John Gregory, and Henri Crenier (and all their teasing), under the quiet tutelage of Hermon MacNeil. Then actually traveling to Paris without scholarship or support to enroll in the actual Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
BUT … LEAVING THERE after 3 weeks because he sensed that Beaux Arts was training him to sculpt “Antiquities” WHENhe wanted to “SCULPT LIFE.”
Jo Davidson
In 1909 before coming back to New York City, Jo married Yvonne deKerstrat, a French actress and sister of an artist friend, Louis de Kerstrat. Their son Jacques was born the next year.
The next several years were very productive for the sculptor. His figural works included a bronze statuette of Ida Rubinstein and an eight-foot bronze La Terre.
ONE-MAN SHOWS X 3. In 1911 Jo began presenting one-man shows. The first opened in the New York in April, then a second more successful one at Reinhardt Galleries in Chicago in November. This included twenty portraits and twenty figures. A third show in New York opened in January 1913 with twenty-two figural works and fifteen portraits. With this growing success in both reputation and finances, Jo could now keep two studios — one in New York and another in Paris.
69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Ave. on-street parking New York City
The Armory Show 1913
Also in 1913, Davidson exhibited in the Armory Show, also known as The International Exhibition of Modern Art. This three-city exhibition started in New York City’s 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Ave. From there it traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago and next to Boston’s Copley Society.
Walt Kuhn, American painter, and a friend of Jo Davidson, was an organizer of the famous Armory Show which was America’s first large-scale introduction to European Modernism in Art. Working with Arthur B. Davies and Walter Pach, Kuhn spent a year, much of it in Europe assembling a collection The exhibition traveled to New York City, Chicago, and Bostonand was seen by approximately 300,000 Americans. Of the 1,600 works included in the show, about one-third were European, and attention became focused on them. The selection was almost a history of European Modernism.[https://www.britannica.com/event/Armory-Show-art-show-New-York-City#ref126367]
“Kuhn and Davies had both studied in Europe and developed a strong appreciation for the groundbreaking developments that were taking place there, particularly in Paris. Both also had ambitious dreams of altering the very fabric of American art and culture. The pair would be particularly instrumental in bringing a display of European art to U.S. shores—the likes of which most Americans had never seen before. With the same sprawling exhibition, they would also provide an opportunity for American artists that they had found so lacking in their own careers.” [ https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-1913-armory-dispelled-belief-good-art-beautiful ]
The show’s sponsor, the Association of American Painters and Sculptors developed in 1911 with the aim of finding suitable exhibition space for young artists. They found ideals and policies of the National Academy of Design too restrictive to innovation. The show introduced the American public accustomed to realistic art to the experimental styles sweeping Paris, namely, Fauvism, Cubism, and Futurism. But most Americans arrived expecting “real art,” namely, the “realistic” representations of the renaissance masters. To these viewers the show was a puzzlement. Observers responded with confusion, shock, or even anger at this “satire” of “real art.”
Jo Davidson and the Armory Show.
The Armory show was labeled many things by American art critics. Frank J. Mather argued that “Post-Impressionism is merely the “harbinger of universal anarchy.”[1] It overwhelmed American isolationism with an artistic invasion of a strange avant gardearmy of artists. So to most Americans it was a puzzlement both in appearance and reporting afterward. They came expecting “real art,” as “realistic” as the renaissance masters. That was Art! But “This?” “What is this?” Observers responded with confusion, shock, anger, and harsh words at this “satire” of “real art.”
The 1913 Armory Show The International Exhibition of Modern Art opened on February 17, 1913 at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue. The Armory Show—as it came to be known—had an immediate and profound influence, introducing the avant-garde to America and forever altering the narrative of Modernism in America. Photograph by Percy Rainford, courtesy of Bettmann/Corbis. SOURCE: https://www.thearmoryshow.com/armory-25/one-fair-one-city ON 2-6-2021
Jo Davidsonwas no stranger to European Modernism. Such experiences of “the unconventional” were part of his strolls of Paris with Sultan by his side. He loved his years on the Left Bank. This Bohemian world of the avant garde enlivened him. It pleased and excited his imagination Such images must have powered his search for that illusive “sculptor within.” His search had gone on for over a decade.
Davidson’s Impact: Jo Davidson appreciated this work, but was hardly a Modernist in his own creativity. Yet he seemed to affect the Armory show in at least two ways:
Walt Kuhn appreciated Jo Davidson works. He placed them cleverly throughout the display. As such, they became benchmarks of understandable art next to some of the more unusual Modernist pieces.“Theartists who created them might know what they intended, but most of them weren’t there and many who were [there] were too shy or found talking too difficult.” 2 Each of Jo’s portrait busts and figures became an oasis of “real” sculpture in the confusing landscape of Modern Art. Confused and puzzled viewers could wander the foreign art territory of the Armory Show and find occasional respite at a “Davidson” work of art.
In addition, Jo Davidson himself became an occasional ‘Docent’ at the Armory Show. Lois Kuhn in her children’s biography of Davidson captures an anecdotal explanation that conveys the essence of Jo to her audience: “Jo often visited the armory show himself and could easily explain to others not only his own work, but that of those artists unable to speak for themselves. What a man with words Jo was! Lois Kuhn offers this humorous ‘possible’ vignette to her young readers:
“Its outrageous.” a man protested, looking hard at one of the paintings. “Whoever heard of ‘pink’ grass?“
Jo chuckled. “But you knew it was grass, didn’t you, sir? It never once occurred to you that it wasn’t anything else, now did it?”
The man frowned. “Well I don’t care. I don’t like the darn thing anyway!”
“Nobody said you had to like it, sir, but if you dislike it, why not dislike it with a reason?” Jo thought for a moment, then asked, “Have you ever noticed what colors the shadows on the snow are?”
The viewer was silent. He was trying hard to remember. Jo knew the man had probably never before bothered to think about such an ordinary thing, although he must have seen it hundreds of times. “No I don’t think I have,” the man admitted, “Do you know?”
“They’re purple! The artist looks and sees them so. But so can you! Or anyone else. Just notice next time it snows. Then try to think how it would be if the artist painted snow, making the shadows green. You’d still know they were shadows, wouldn’t you?”
“Okay, you win!” the man sighed. I see your point and you are right!” He smiled, began to turn away, but suddenly turned back and winked at Jo. “You know,” he said strongly, “if more artists could explain things as you do, maybe plain people like me wouldn’t have so darn much trouble trying to find out what they’re up to!”
Jo grinned back. He was happy knowing just one more person would be able to look at a piece of art and try really to understand it.” 2
infrared landscapes by richard mosse at the 2013 Armory Show. CREDIT: ‘platon, north kivu, eastern congo’, 2012all images courtesy jack shainman gallery.
Note: PINK GRASS at the 2013 Armory Show ~~~ Irish photographer Richard Mosse is celebrated for his striking imagery of eastern congo, and presents ‘infrared landscapes’ at the Armory Show in New York 100 years later from the 7-10 March, 2013. “The photographs are full and rich – the arresting deep reds and crimson hues, candy floss trees and savanna grasses aflame with color. all these surreal elements created through a combination of an obsolete wooden field camera and a rare technique produced by kodak aerochrome, a product developed for military use in the detection of aerial bombing targets. in the late 1960s, the medium was appropriated in artwork for rock musicians like the grateful dead or jimi hendrix, setting the tone for the sublime psychedelic aesthetic of the time.”
Jo Davidson revels in“PORTRAIT BUST-ing”
By the end of 1913 Davidson had done more than thirty portrait busts. He had a reputation for being “fast” and “good” at that craft. The Davidson’s returned to France, with a second son, Jean, and found a house in Céret, which is near the border with Spain about 20 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. His wife’s brother Louis de Kerstrat had purchased a small house there. More importantly, growing reputation of Céret was as“the refuge of Picasso, Matisse, Soutine and Chagall” It would eventually be known as “the Mecca of the Cubists.” Moving there he met Picasso and Aristide Maillol. Soon Jo was off to London which presented a wealth of opportunities for making portraits of notables.
LORD NORTHCLIFFE 1913 by Jo Davidson. “Between …” p.54b.
“Portrait became an obsession. Meeting and knowing people meant becoming acquainted with their thinking.” Jo Davidson
From a studio in Thackery House he roved cafes, bars, watering holes seeing and being seen by journalists, authors, and celebrities. His 1914 exhibition at Leicester Galleries included busts of newspaper mogul Lord Northcliffe, Frank and Nell Harris, and George Bernard Shaw.
THE TASTE OF WAR
When WWI broke out, Davidson wanted a place in the effort and through Lord Northcliffe was appointed an artist-correspondent to accompany veteran correspondent George Lynch. The first went to Ostend, Belgium on the English Channel finding a “dead city.” They went on east to Ghent climbing 194 steps in a church tower observing the battle of Grenberegen nearly 15 miles distant. He didn’t enjoy it!
Jo Davidison’s LIBERTY BONDS poster- THE GUT PUNCH.
He later tried to make sketches but without enthusiasm. At an ambulance he met doctors and nurses who spoke no French and he was called over to translate. He received word that their hotel in Ostend had been bombed and destroyed the day they left.
The Germans were advancing and the British were retreating. He saw a priest comforting a soldier with open severe facial wounds. On the road back to Ostend he passed carts filled with old women, children and babies. People carrying pots and pans, a goat, a mattress, a chair, something they could not part with. “War” was no longer just a word in the history books.
Heartsick, Jo returned to London wanting to do something in clay to express what he saw in France. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote three lines:
FRANCE AROUSED 1914 by Jo Davidson. [Between… p 86a.]
“When France in wrath her giant – limbs upreared,
And with that oath, which smote air, earth, and sea,
Stamped her strong foot and said she would be free.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The result for Jo was“France Aroused.”
“It was a figure of Bellona,
the goddess of War,
with her feet squarely planted on the on the ground,
her arms upraised, fists clenched,
and her head thrown back —
a cry of rage and protest.” [
Between …, p.11.]
RETURNING TO Céret — His Home was converted to a HOSPITAL
On May 26, 1915, Yvonne offered their home in Céret as an auxiliary hospital, Bénévole No. 62 with 40 beds, two nurses and Yvonne in charge. She was up at five A.M. and when all retired would pour over the books in the wee hours. Their five-year-old son, Jacques, dressed in the uniform of a Chasseur Alpin presided at the head of the evening dinner table in a black baret the Apline hunters.
In 1916 Davidson returned to New York exhibiting fifty-five sculptures and war drawings at Reinhardt Galleries and in June modeled President Wilson. He began to realize the historical value of his collection of works. When the United States entered the War in 1917 Davidson decided to make a “plastic history” by modeling portraits of Allied civil and militrary chiefs. So we left for France with funding from Gertrude Whitney and letters of reference from previous subjects. The result — The Peace Conference Series — fourteen portraits of including General John J. Pershing (1918), Marshal Ferdinand Foch (1918), who signed his portrait beginning a tradition that Jo continued, Lord Arthur Balfour (1919), George Clemenceau (1920).
1923 – Gertrude Stein and Jo had met in 1909. He assessed that a head of her was not enough. He decided to do a seated figure — “a sort of a modern Buddha.” [Between …, 174-7.]
“Gertrude was a very rich personality. Her wit and her laughter were contagfious. She loved good food and served it. While I was doing her portrait, She would come around my studio with a manuscript and read it aloud. The extraordinary part of it was that, as she read, I never felt any sense of mystification. ‘A rose is a rose is a rose,’ she took on a different meaning with each inflection. When she read aloud got the humor of it. We both laughed, and her laughter was something to hear. There was an eternal quality about her — she somehow symbolized wisdom.”
John D. Rockefeller 1924
The only person Jo Davidson ever wrote to requesting to do a portrait bust was John D. Rockefeller. One month later he received a Letter from his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. containing several questions.
Jo Davidson and John D. Rockefeller modeling his portrait
Several days later John D, Jr. visited the studio with more questions and discussed all details of the venture. A truck arrived carrying all of Davidson’s studio equipment to the Rockefeller Estate in Tarrytown, north of the city.
On their meeting Rockefeller told Jo, “Davis … Davison … Davidson.” The first was his secretary’s name, the second his own middle name, and finally Jo’s last name. Rockefeller voiced the ironic trilogy and his usual “A-ll good.” After meeting his new subject, Davidson, Jo entered into the daily routine and was invited to stay as a house guest rather that commute by train daily. Jo’s descriptions of his time with the family patriarch and his storytelling are as illuminating as his sculpting.
When Jo finished, Rockefeller invited all the house staff to come in and see his fresh likeness. “Come __ in,” he said. “Take__ your__ time. Have a good look at it__ yes? A-ll good. Thank You.”
The son, John D. Jr., liked the finished bust so much that he commissioned Jo to execute it in marble, and also to make a colossal head in stone to be put in the Standard Oil Building.
1927 Pioneer Woman ~ Ponca City, OK ~ E.W. Marland
A reunion for Hermon and Jo and John Gregory.
CONFIDENT – The winning PIONEER WOMAN by Bryant Baker
TRUSTING (1927) by Jo Davidson
CHALLENGING. 1927. Hermon MacNeil
SELF RELIANT by A. Stirling Calder
In 1927 wealthy oilman E. W. Marland of Ponca City, Oklahoma invited a dozen American sculptors to compete for a commission to create a statue to honor the Pioneer Woman. Each artist was to submit a two-foot bronze model for the monument, which was to express, in Marland’s words, “the spirit of the pioneer woman—a tribute to all women of the sunbonnet everywhere.”
PROTECTIVE by John Gregory
Marland’s selection of that dozen sculptors became something of a reunion for Jo Davidson[1] and Hermon MacNeil and John Gregory (an earlier assistant with Davidson in MacNeil’s studio). Others invited were invited included James Earle Fraser, Bryant Baker, and A. Stirling Calder. Each of the dozen were paid $10,000 to produce a bronze two-foot statue model with the winner to be determined by public vote.
The models were sent on a six-month tour of several U.S. cities, from New York and Boston to Minneapolis and Fort Worth and Chicago. Tens of thousands of ballots were cast, and Baker’s model “Confident” won by a margin of nearly two to one. Neither MacNeil or his two previous students won the commission.
Bryant Baker’s entry won the final comission by a wide margin of ballots. Each artist submitted a two-foot bronze model for the monument, which was to express, in Marland’s words, “the spirit of the pioneer woman—a tribute to all women of the sunbonnet everywhere.”
JO DAVIDSON STRIKES OIL
Jo Davidson charmed E. W. Marland so that he built a permanent studio for the sculptor in Ponca City. Jo declined moving there permanently, but did spent weeks there completing statues of E. W., his daughter, Lyde standing holding a large garden bonnet; and son, George, in boots and riding breeches. He also carved a seated figure of E.W. Marland in marble which remains outside the museum a century later.
After completing the sculptures, E. W. Marland took Jo on a trip to California and back to New York in his private railroad car the “Ponca City.” Jo wrote letters to Yvonne during the two-week excursion. Jo met E. W.’s friends, and E.W. met Jo’s friends. “The Trip, one of the richest experiences of my life, eventually was over, and I set out for Europe where political developments were moving at a rapid pace.” [Between …, pp. 210-220.]
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
“Monument Man”
Photos of his works from 1912 to 1929
Hot Links to MacNeil Sculptures follow …
“Into the Unknown” by H. A. MacNeil ( white marble, 1912) became the ‘seal’ image for the National Sculpture Society.
MacNeil’s “Lincoln Lawyer” At the Rushville, Illinois Public Library.
“Dwight L. Moody” bust by Hermon A. MacNeil. Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts
The tradition of touching Lincoln’s nose for “good luck” has passed on to another generation of Illini students since the restoration.
Ezra Cornell statue at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY was dedicated in 1918 after WWI.
“Dwight L. Moody” 1920 – A bust by Hermon Atkins MacNeil now graces the campus of Northfield Mount Hermon academy in Massachusetts. The school is a merger of the two separate academies (one for girls and one for boys) that Moody founded in 1879 and 1881
1916 Photo of the installation of the MacNeil statue. Thia appears to have the statue sitting in the right hand leg of the Arch. The left leg is where it was permanently installed. This photo was salvaged from a NYC flea market by John Gomez and used with his permission Credit: John Gomez, NYC.
Behind the scenes MacNeil’s likeness of General Washington guarded the rear flanks of the rally
“George Washington as Commander-in Chief” ~ A recent photo of this MacNeil work that has graced the Washington Arch in Greenwich Village for the last 96 years.
Jim Haas, author and College Point native, sent this Philadelphia shot of Hermon MacNeil’s Soldiers and Sailors Monument on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. That is a rare shot of Jim himself, taken by Lynne, his director of public relations. : ) Jim is a Friend of HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com and a generous researcher for the website.
Philadelphia – Hermon MacNeil – Soldiers And Sailors Monument Sailors side – Being photographed by Dan Leininger, webmaster).
A studio B&W photo of MacNeil’s “WWI Monument” placed at Flushing, NY. This photo was found by John Gomez in a file of papers at a Manhattan flea market on June 9, 2012, nearly 87 years after the statue was made.
A visit to Illinois last week included a stop at the Abe Lincoln bust at Spurlock Museum at U of I. The sculpture will no longer be viewable in-the-round after being returned to its permanent home in the sparklingly-restored Lincoln Hall on campus.
Hearmon A. MacNeil’s “Lincoln Lawyer” at the University of Illinois
Hermon MacNeil include this sculpture of the ‘original telegraph’ into his tribute to Erza Cornell in 1917.
July 21, 2011. The restored bust on display at the Spurlock Museum. MacNeil’s Lincoln bust is beautifully restored on public display in the Spurlock Museum
MacNeil’s 1915 “Lincoln” in Lincoln Hall
MacNeil’s ‘Adventurous Bowman’ atop the “Column of Progress.” None the structures and sculptures seen here remained after the PPIE colsed in 1915.
“Column of Progress” with MacNeil’s “Adventurous Bowman” as the finial figure on top.
MacNeil’s 12′ 8″ Washington (left ) on the Arch (illuminated at sunset)
General George Washington with Flags (U.S. and POW/MIA) ~ Washington Arch Greenwich, NYC (Photo courtesy of: Gibson Shell – 2011)
General George Washington ~ gloves in-hand and hand-on-sword
MacNeil's "Washington as Commander" with 'Valor' in profile to the right
This older photo shows the Arch when traffic was still allowed in the Square.
World War I Memorial – Flushing, New York by H. A. MacNeil
The Soldiers side of the monument
The Soldiers side of the Monument.
ROGER WILLIAMS bust by MacNeil at “Hall of Fame” in Bronx Comm. College ~ Photo Credit: Librado Romero/The New York Times ( http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/12/05/nyregion/05metjournal2_ready.html )
The companion figure to “Intellectual Development”
Further detail to Pat’s companion figure
The sculptor’s signature and date on “Pat”
“Pat” or “Intellectual Development” holds a septer bearing the initial “N,” as in Northwestern, with the owl poised for flight in front of Patten Gym.
“Physical Development” or “Jim,” for short, achieves victory over his opponent in front of Patten Gym at Northwestern University.
Ezra Cornell now interacts with Students through “Dear Uncle Ezra” website.
Hermon Macneil’s ‘green likeness’ of Ezra Cornel is what most students visulaze.
MacNeil’s Jolliete image of 1926.
MacNeil’s depiction of Marquette has the priest with an inviting open right hand and raising a cross above his heart.
Our trip was a satisfying success as our daughter took our pictures at hefoot of the Monument.
Chicagoans approaching the Monument along Marshall and 24th Avenue Boulevards are greeted by the Jesuit’s open hand.
MacNeil’s bronze sculpture of Marquette with an Ilinois Indian on his right hand.
Face of Jolliet from MacNeil’s 1926 Statue grouping of Marquette
Visit these links for further information on these ststues and monuments:
F. J. Mather argued that “Post-Impressionism is merely the harbinger of universal anarchy.” [1913, March 6, “Newest Tendencies in Art,” Independent 74, pp.504-512.] Cited in, On The Margins Of Art Worlds, By Larry Gross p. ?
Here’s a 2010 Update on this Story: 2010 Ponca City duplicates 12 models:https://oklahoman.com/article/3455825/ponca-city-welcomes-back-one-dozen-pioneer-women
As 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 forSouthampton Hospital,helped to establish the Rogers Memorial Library, served briefly as village president (mayor) and founded theParrish 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.
Dueling advocacy groups are set to converge on the historic Battery in Charleston, South Carolina over the next two weekends as racial tensions continue to escalate in (and around) the Holy City. And there is a good chance their members will be armed …
The focal point of the forthcoming demonstrations? A 25-foot tall Confederate memorial located at the southern tip of White Point Garden, a 5.7-acre public park located on the Charleston peninsula at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers. Erected in 1932 by the Fort Sumter Memorial Commission, this monument has been vandalized on numerous occasions in the past. Now it is drawing crowds of antagonists (and defenders) in the aftermath of rioting that rocked Charleston a little over a month ago following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota over Memorial Day.
Entitled “To The Confederate Defenders Of Charleston,” the monument features a 12-foot bronze statue on a 13-foot granite pedestal. It is the handiwork of the late sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil of Everett, Massachusetts.
Per the Smithsonian Art Inventories Catalog, the monument is “an allegorical depiction of the Confederate defense of Charleston during the Civil War.”
“The male figure is the defending warrior, with a sword in his proper right hand and a shield bearing the South Carolina state seal in his proper left hand,” the catalog noted.
The female figure (who stands for the city of Charleston) “holds in her proper right hand a garland of laurel, symbolizing immortality, and with her proper left hand points towards the sea to the enemy,” per the catalog.
“On the base are scenes in relief of figures repairing the shattered walls of Fort Sumter with sand bags,” the descriptor continues. “Eleven stars on the lower base represent the eleven Confederate states.”
Demonstrators affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement have made taking down this monument their top priority after successfully advocating for the removal of a 115-foot monument across town honoring the late U.S. vice president John C. Calhoun.
The removal of the Calhoun monument was pushed by liberal Charleston mayor John Tecklenburg – who recently convened a task force to recommend further historical sanitization in the Holy City (including the renaming of Calhoun Street).
Tecklenburg has been criticized for his advocacy – as well as his alleged failure to protect citizens and businesses during the riots that consumed the city on the evening of May 30, 2020.
“We sat for three-plus hours with no assistance to protect our businesses,” Jack Handegan III wrote on Facebook the day after the riots. “We watched them slowly and methodically smash and steal every single item out of (our) neighbors place while the police never came. Three-plus hours of chaos.”
“There was no law enforcement on upper King Street,” one property owner in the area told us bluntly the same day. “Whatsoever.”
While a group of Charleston business interests is emerging to challenge Tecklenburg in the halls of power in the Holy City, the threat of violence on its streets is once again rising … and the monument in White Point Garden could very well be the spark that lights the fuse.
There was at least one scuffle at this monument on Sunday (July 5, 2020) – an incident which has prompted Black Lives Matter protesters and monument defenders to ramp up their rhetoric (and call for reinforcements at future protests).
Take a look …
(Click to view)
(Via: The Contemporary Conservative/ Facebook)
“Black Lives Matter has been at the battery every weekend since the riots,” one source tracking the situation told us. “It is just escalating drastically.”
According to a report from Kelly Golden of 94.3 WSC radio, one Black Lives Matter protester showed up at the monument on Sunday armed with an AR-15 assault rifle. Another reportedly carried an axe and a taser.
“The displays at the battery have gone on for five years now without an incident ever involving a weapon,” said James Bessenger, editor of The Contemporary Conservative. “On Sunday three BLM protestors confronted (monument defenders) with an AR-15, a taser, and an axe. At one point, a protestor bumped into an individual and snatched his flag. Another BLM protestor hit the flag bearer in the head from behind, knocking him down.”
According to Bessenger, the situation is poised to escalate …
A new group calling itself “Flags Across The South” announced that it was planning on bringing weapons – possibly loaded weapons – to future demonstrations. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter protestors and Antifa activists from across Charleston have reportedly indicated they will stage a counter-protest “with weapons,” according to Bessenger.
“Additional groups from out of town are planning to attend and carry for at least the next two Sundays,” Bessenger added.
What could possibly go wrong, right?
Clearly, this is an increasingly volatile situation … one in which we hope cooler heads on all sides manage to prevail. Certainly we believe there are cooler heads on all sides of these various issues – people of all races and backgrounds eager for a real, respectful conversation on the underlying issues that must be addressed.
Will their voices be heard above the din?
We shall see …
UPDATE || An earlier version of this story indicated the memorial in question was first erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Further research has revealed it was the Fort Sumter Memorial Commission that erected it. We apologize for the error.
Edward Van Orden describes the Standing Liberty quarter dollar by saying:
“Eversince it first appeared in circulation in January 1917, the Standing Liberty quarter (SLQ) has been considered among the most beautiful U.S. coins ever produced. Its historically symbolic and sculptural design played a vital role in elevating the artistry of U.S. silver coinage.
Hermon A. MacNeil Commemorative sketched by Artist Charles D. Daughtrey as the seventh work in his Series of Coin Designers is available at http://www.cdaughtrey.com/
Crafted by American sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866-1947), this iconic image of Liberty was the winning entry in a contest that drew upward of 50 submissions. An artist of some renown, MacNeil designed the east pediment of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., and sculpted a rendering of General George Washington for the Washington Square Arch in New York’s Greenwich Village. MacNeil’s Liberty spoke to the movement in American numismatics initiated in 1904 by President Theodore Roosevelt and preeminent sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. In the spirit of Saint-Gaudens’ double eagle (gold $20)and
Victor D. Brenner’s Lincoln cent designs, – the quarter found its renaissance, boasting a style hearkening back to antiquity that intertwined artisan form with transactional function
At a time when most of Europe was actively engaged in the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson, elected on a peace platform in 1916, was biding our country’s time before directly involving the United States militarily. It was against this backdrop that the Standing Liberty quarter was unveiled to an eager public.
Robert W Wollery, Director of US Mint 1915-1916
The design fittingly reflected America’s increasing global involvement, epitomized by Miss Liberty’s confident, forward movement, holding a shield in her left hand for protection and an olive branch in her right for peace. Our nation, for the most part, desired peace but was prepared to defend itself and its way of life. In the words of Mint Director Robert W. Woolley in July 1916, the design seemed to typify “the awakening interest of the country in its own protection.”
Benford, Timothy B., Jr. “MacNeil’s Liberty: Art or Obscenity?” The Numismatist (December 2003).
Brothers, Eric. “New York City: Mecca of Numis- matic Artistry.” The Numismatist (November 2013). Cline, J.H. Standing Liberty Quarters, 3rd edition.
Palm Harbour, FL: author, 1997.
Dolnick, Michael M. “Design Changes on the Lib-
erty Standing Quarter.” The Numismatist (Septem- ber 1954).
Doyle, Al. “Class of 1916, Part 2.” The Numismatist (October 2016).
____. “MacNeil’s Standing Liberty Quarter among Most Artistic.” Coin World’s Coin Values (November 2004).
Duffield, Frank G. “Slight Change in the Die of Quarter Dollars.” The Numismatist (June 1926).
Kelman, Keith N. Standing Liberty Quarters. Nashua, NH: International Numismatica Corporation, 1976. (ANA Library Catalog No. GB24.K4) .
LaMarre, Tom. “MacNeil’s Standing Liberty Remains a Favorite.” Coins magazine (September 30, 2009).
Lange, David W. “The Coinage of 1921.” The Numismatist (December 2003).
____. “Collecting Standing Liberty Quarters.” The Numismatist (December 2003).
____. “The Impossible Dream.” The Numismatist (October 2005).
____. “1923-S Coinage, Part 2.” The Numismatist (September 2011).
____. “The Standing Liberty Quarter.” The Nu- mismatist (July 2016).
Moran, Michael F. Striking Change: The Great Artistic Collaboration of Theodore Roosevelt Augus- tus Saint-Gaudens. Atlanta: Whitman Publishing, 2008. (GB40.M6s)
Sieber, Arlyn G. “Images of Liberty.” The Numis- matist (July 2016).
Woolley, Robert W. “Symbolism of the New Coins of 1916.” Report of the Director of the Mint (July 15, 1916).
This MacNeil Medallion is a 3" bronze medal with nickel plating minted in 2016 to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Hermon Atkins MacNeil and the 100th Centenary year of the first minting of the Standing Liberty Quarter dollar. The face duplicates the obverse of MacNeil's original sculpture of Miss Liberty from 1916. The "M" beneath the 13th star is the only form of signature allowed for the sculptor.
<== NOW AVAILABLE ON EBAY the Hermon A. MacNeil Medallion
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