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After the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, MacNeil had a studio in the Marquette Building. Black Pipe modeled and helped him there. Hermon said that BLACK PIPE …
… stayed with me in all for a year and a half, helping me with odd jobs about the studio.
MacNeil Comments on
Black Pipe: 29 years after …
in an interview with J. W. McSpadden in 1922
MACNEIL: “Yes, and you may find it an interesting yarn. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show had been in Chicago during the Fair, and one of his braves was Black Pipe, a Sioux, a fine-looking fellow. He had stayed behind, and one day I met him on the streets, looking hungry and cold, and asked him if he wanted something to do. He did there was no doubt about that. I took him into the studio, fed him up, and then set to work modeling his head.
I finished it in four hours, for I was not sure that I would ever see my Indian again; but he stayed with me in all for a year and a half, helping me with odd jobs about the studio. That’s his head there.”
It was a life-size bronze, which he indicated, not done in full relief but resting on a plaque a strong piece of portraiture.
Black Pipe later became the model for “Primitive Indian Music,” also known as “The Primitive Chant” and “The Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit.”
As posted last Month on October 8, 2023, Black Pipe was a model for multiple statues and reliefs.
Because Black Pipe was among “white folks” long enough to not be superstitious about being photographed and modeled in clay, he became a studio helper, model, and regular for over a year.
‘The Primitive Chant” … is one of my best-known Indian subjects.” MacNeil
Black Pipe became the model for “Primitive Indian Music,” also known as “The Primitive Chant,” and the “The Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit.”
This is the spirited figure of a naked savage dancing to the music of his own flute. It has been widely copied in art prints.
Source: Joseph Walker McSpadden, Famous Sculptors of America, (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1924) pp. 311-12
In reviewing “The Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit,” Lorado Taft praised MacNeil’ sculptural work and composition YET CRITICIZED how a warrior chanting into his elbow could be called “MUSIC ?” MACNEIL, by contract knew that Native American dances, such as “The Prayer for Rain” of the Hopi’s or the “Moque Runner” were acts of devotion to the Creator Spirit.
MacNeil’s exposure to the life of Native Tribes appreciated their AWE, WONDER, and WORSHIP embedded in such Ritual Actions.
See Taft’s critique from this April 25, 2012 posting:
Part 1: “The Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit” Hermon A. MacNeil~Sculptor of the American West
Related posts:
- BLACK PIPE ~~ MacNeil’s 1894 Roundel ~~ Only 2 Exist (18.6) This website has found the ONLY TWO BLACK PIPE Roundels…
- 123 Year old Bas Relief of “Black Pipe The Sioux at Six Teen Years” has been reported to www.HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com (16.6) 2017 BLACK PIPE in 14 stories A never before seen or…
- MORE on BLACK PIPE #2 ~ How The SIOUX Brave returned to South Dakota. (14.5) I RECEIVED AN EMAIL on September 24, 2023 FROM: Kevin…
- BLACK PIPE, the SIOUX, Returns to South Dakota on “Native American Day” ~ ~ (12.3) 2023 After 130 years, Black Pipe, the Sioux, has returned…
- 2016 ~ A Double Anniversary Year for Hermon Atkins MacNeil (8.9) 1886-2016 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Hermon A. MacNeil…
- Hermon MacNeil Supported Black Sculptor: Augusta Savage: ~ 1923 ~~ Part #1 (8.6) MacNeil wrote a letter in 1923 advocating for Miss Augusta…
Related Images:
Why the Chicago Monument Project? ~~ FAQ
Posted by: | CommentsFrequently Asked Questions 
Why is Chicago doing this?
Chicago joins cities across the country reckoning with the omissions and over-simplifications present in their public art collections. The Chicago Monuments Project intends to grapple with the often unacknowledged – or forgotten – history associated with the City’s various municipal art collections and provides a vehicle for a public dialogue that will elevate new ways to memorialize Chicago’s history more equitably and accurately.
Are all of these monuments going to be removed?
No, this is not a condemnation of these monuments, but rather this is an opportunity to learn from them. We invite Chicagoans to provide valuable feedback, reflecting on the city’s history and how it should be encapsulated in our public art moving forward.
STAY TUNED HERE: We will post results as soon as they are announced this Summer!
Related posts:
- Marquette Statue in Chicago (9) Today we took a short trip south from our daughter’s…
- More Marquette Statue Photos (9) Our Photo journey to this statue produced more pictures than…
- Searching for Uncle Hermon in Chicago ~ “The Sun Vow” (cont.) (9) On a cold December day we took the CTA Blue…
- “Chicago Sculpture in the Loop” features Hermon A. MacNeil’s Work at Marquette Building (8) Gregory H. Jenkins has posted stories of the Marquette Bronze…
- Hermon MacNeil Sculpture in the Chicago Loop (8) Gregory H. Jenkins AIA, Chicago architect and keeper of the …
- “PRIMITIVE INDIAN MUSIC” ~ Part 3: 1894 Eda Lord’s Ticket to the Chicago World’s Fair (8) Eda Lord, (the woman who purchased the MacNeil bronze statue,…
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~ ~ ~ ~ ~ What’s the FUTURE of the PAST? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Chicago Monuments Project
Posted by: | CommentsAll of Hermon MacNeil’s Lifeworks
enshrine the PAST.
SO… What is the Future of the Past?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Chicago Monuments Project
Throughout 2021 the Chicago Monuments Project has been pursuing its Mission. From over 500 public monuments in the City of Chicago, the Project has identified 41 for review related to the following issues:
- Promoting narratives of white supremacy
- Presenting inaccurate and/or demeaning characterizations of American Indians
- Memorializing individuals with connections to racist acts, slavery, and genocide
- Presenting selective, over-simplified, one-sided views of history
- Not sufficiently including other stories, in particular those of women, people of color, and themes of labor, migration, and community building
- Creating tension between people who see value in these artworks and those who do not [ Source: https://chicagomonuments.org/about ]
The PAST is under REVIEW
Hermon MacNeil’s
Marquette-Jolliet-Illini Indian Memorial
is one of the 41 under review.
Webmaster, Dan Neil Leininger and Donna on their first visit to the Marquette – jolliet – Ilini monument at Marshall and Twenty-fourth Boulevard in Chicago.
A report of recommendations is expected to be released in
Summer of 2022
The Project created written introductions for each of the 41 pieces being reviewed. MacNeil’s Jacques Marquette-Louis Jolliet Memorial is introduced as follows:
Title: Jacques Marquette-Louis Jolliet Memorial
Date: 1926
Artist: Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866-1947)
Location: Marshall and 24th Blvd
Context: As the first Europeans to explore and document the northern portion of the Mississippi, which included the river link from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi basin through what would become Chicago, French missionary Jacques Marquette and the Quebec-born cartographer Louis Jolliet, along with their Indian guides, are ubiquitous figures in the modern iconography of the founding of Chicago.
This imposing representation of Marquette and Jolliet, with a subservient American Indian at their side, was created by Hermon Atkins McNeil, the academically trained sculptor who contributed the relief sculptures of Marquette’s life to the extraordinary decorative cycle at the Marquette Building in thirty years earlier, in 1895.
Other representations of Marquette include the commemorative plaques near the site of the Damen Avenue Bridge (1930) and at the DuSable Bridge (1925), as well as on the northeast DuSable Bridge pylon (1928).
Source: Chicago Monuments Project (https://chicagomonuments.org/monuments/jacques-marquette-louis-jolliet-memorial) retrieved March 28, 2022
“Statues of Limitations:
MacNeil’s depiction of Marquette has the priest with an inviting open right hand as his left hand holds out a crucifix above his heart. Their (Illini) Indian guide looks on in seeming fascination.
MacNeil’s Marquette-Jolliet-Illini Memorial
“Whether they’re made
of bronze or marble,
apparently not all of Chicago’s monuments
are set in stone.”
We eagerly await the Chicago Monument Project
report scheduled to be released Summer of 2022.
Related Images:
The “Apache Papoose” an early Native American study by Hermon MacNeil
Posted by: | Comments
Recently, I procured a plaster casting by
Hermon
Atkins
MacNeil
The work was a very early study dating back to the 1890’s.
The image re-appears as part of a larger sculpture entitled
‘Mother and
Papoose’
A bronze casting of that later work was listed by
J. N. BARTFIELD GALLERIES1
They state that:
According to the Roman Bronze Works ledger, Only two casts of Mother and Papoose were ever done, both—#1 and #2 on the same day: November 9, 1906. No other casts are known. (Source: https://www.bartfield.com/ retrieved on 1-25-22)
This detail of the bronze ‘Mother & Papoose’ shows the similarity of the plaster model of 1894 and the bronze casting of 1906.
Of the Papoose model, MacNeil scholar and College Point author, James Haas, wrote the following:
“In the summer of 1895 [when MacNeil traveled in the Four Corners area] he modeled two dozen Indian-themed pieces. His subjects were Utes, Navajo, Acoma and Moqui Indians from which sprang his most famous work, Moqui Prayer for Rain.” Mother and Papoose appears to have been modeled by MacNeil while he was on this trip.
1892 0r 1894
Whether the Papoose plaster was made in 1892 or 1894 is in disagreement. James Haas suggests the later date.
The Papoose is dated in Roman Numerals. At first glance they could be read as:
MDCCCXCII
But there is an additional “I” at the end of the hand engraved date on the crown of the papoose. It could appear to be the other side of a letter ‘V’ which would offer an alternative reading of the Roman Numeral date as:
MDCCCXCIV
which changes the last digit to reads out as a 4 (IV) rather than a 2 (II).
The ‘1894’ reading of the date fits better into the known timeline of MacNeil’s life after the ending of the Chicago Worlds Fair — Worlds Columbian Exposition in 1893.
1892 Papoose by Hermon Atkins MacNeil
J. N. BARTFIELD GALLERIES 1
AMERICAN, WESTERN & SPORTING ART
Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866-1947)
According to the Roman Bronze Works ledger, Only two casts of Mother and Papoose were ever done, both—#1 and #2 on the same day: November 9, 1906. No other casts are known. Of the model, MacNeil scholar, James Haas, wrote the following, “In the summer of 1895 [when MacNeil traveled in the Four Corners area] he modeled two dozen Indian-themed pieces. His subjects were Utes, Navajo, Acoma and Moqui Indians from which sprang his most famous work, Moqui Prayer for Rain.” Mother and Papoose appears to have been modeled by MacNeil while he was on this trip. A Massachusetts native, Hermon Atkins MacNeil studied in Boston, New York, and Paris before being asked to work on the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1891. While there, MacNeil saw Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and was inspired to take his classical training to the American West. MacNeil’s bronzes of Native Americans, perhaps more than those of any other sculptor, portray majesty while preserving the individuality of the subject. The spirituality Macneil’s First Americans convey is expressed through lightness and solidity rather than other worldliness.
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
Mother and Papoose
Roman Bronze Works N.Y.
Cast N.1
16 1/2 inches high
Sources:
- J. N. BARTFIELD GALLERIES: AMERICAN, WESTERN & SPORTING ART. Retrieved from https://www.bartfield.com/ [On 1-25-22]
Related posts:
- Hermon MacNeil at the 1893 Columbian Exposition ~ ~ ~ THE CHICAGO YEARS ~ ~ (3) CHICAGO YEARS: Partners and Colleagues When Hermon MacNeil came home to the…
- 123 Year old Bas Relief of “Black Pipe The Sioux at Six Teen Years” has been reported to www.HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com (3) BLACK PIPE in 14 stories A never before seen or documented…
- MacNeil-Brooks Wedding Reception – Christmas Day 1895 (3) One Hundred and twenty-three years (123) ago, Hermon Atkins MacNeil…
- Charles Francis Browne … MacNeil … Garland ~ Part Two (3) A recent post of Aug 13, 2021, highlighted a hidden…
- “Chicago Sculpture in the Loop” features Hermon A. MacNeil’s Work at Marquette Building (2) Gregory H. Jenkins has posted stories of the Marquette Bronze…
- ~ ~ ~ “The Most Happy Young Man I Know” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Hermon A. MacNeil ~ Success & Marriage! (2) 1895 Hermon Atkins MacNeil, American Sculptor (1866-1947) MacNeil’s bronze of…
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October 2, 1947 ~ Hermon A. MacNeil dies at 81
Posted by: | CommentsHERMON ATKINS MACNEIL
1945 Bust of Hermon MacNeil by Jo Davidson
Photo from ~1945 at MacNeil Cabin in Vermont
TRANSITIONS
On this day seventy-four years ago, Hermon Atkins MacNeil died at his College Point Studio on October 2, 1947.
The Photo at right (taken at the MacNeil Cabin in Vermont) and the Bust by Jo Davidson) both date from about 1945, just two years before his death.
The website CHICAGO LOOP.ORG celebrates architecture in the Windy City. They tell the MacNeil story this way: 1
“Unable to transition from his Beaux Arts training to a more “modern” style, he had not had a major commission for nearly 15 years. 1 When he died, the contents of the studio was “hauled out to the dump” (where, much of the collection was salvaged by neighbor, illustrator John A. Coughlin who later donated it to the Smithsonian Institution.) It hadn’t always been that way.” [See Note 1 Below] http://chicagosculptureintheloop.blogspot.com/2012/01/hermon-atkins-macneil.html
One of several “Black Pipe” modelings that MacNeil sculpted. ~1894
They continue to say: “In 1891, 25 year-old MacNeil came West to Chicago. Where he assisted Philip Martiny with sculpture at the Electricity Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition (World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893). And, where, on the Midway, he met Black Pipe, an Ogala Sioux, performing at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Native Americans and their culture became the inspiration for MacNeil’s art for years to come. By late 1895 he was on his way to Monument Valley with Hamlin Garland and C.F. Browne — after working with Edward Kemeys at the Marquette (and no doubt hearing stories of Kemeys Wyoming adventures some 20 years earlier). The travels West were just the beginning.
On Christmas Day 1895 after winning the Prixe de Rome, he married Carol (Carrie) Brooks (one of Lorado Taft’s “White Rabbits – and a sculptor in her own right”). They sailed to Europe to take up three years in residence at the American Academy in Rome. And re-entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1900. By 1901 he and Carol (with their two children) returned to America and established their studio in College Point on Long Island. With an entire career before them.
To quote Chicago Architecture, “National in scope, Beaux Arts in inspiration, MacNeil returned to Chicago in 1909, briefly, for the Cook County Seal Commission.”
Hermon MacNeil ~ Seal of Cook County on the Courthouse ~ 1908
But my favorite remains his Four Panels of Father Marquette life scuplted in 1895 in Chicago. “Where inspiration, youth, opportunity, and a beautiful, capable wife converged with the past and the future —
at the Marquette Building.”
Panel 4 – “The de Profundis was intoned … Fr. Marquette’s coffin carried.
Black Pipe, Sioux warrior from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, stranded after the 1893 World’s Fair closed. MacNeil took him in to his studio after he was desolate in Chicago.
The man front and center is Black Pipe. (See detail at right).
He is MacNeil’s model for the Ogalla Sioux Warrior memorialized at 140 South Dearborn Street. Bearing the coffin of Father Marquette.
See the entire collection of Marquette photos at the CHICAGO LOOP.ORG
Originally Posted by chicagoandpointsnorth@gmail.com
Black Pipe lived at MacNeil’s studio, modeled for him, and worked as a gardener and assisted in tasks.
MacNeil’s bronze of Blackpipe, a Sioux warrior he befriended in 1893 (source Smithsonian Archives)
NOTE 1:
- The comment “Unable to transition from his Beaux Arts training to a more “modern” style, he had not had a major commission for nearly 15 years.” is not entirely accurate. The “15 years” comment ignores the following: 1) two statues (Alfred H. Terry and John Sedgwick) on Connecticut Capitol building in 1934; 2) the statue of George Rogers Clark at the National Monument in Vincennes, Indiana dedicated by President FDR in 1936; and 3) the Pony Express Monument in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1940. It also overlooks 8 years of the Great Depression, plus 7 years of MacNeil’s retirement during those same fifteen years. Furthermore, the word “unable” seems presumptuous. Whether MacNeil was “unable” to transition or simply “chose not to transition” to a more modern style seems a false dilemma for speculatation. His sixty-plus-years of sculpting in the Beaux Arts style fully documents his “able-ity” and his preference for creative expression. This website offers continual documentation of those abilities.
Related posts:
- Part 2: “Primitive Indian Music” ~ 1894 bronze casting discovered! Is this an early prototype of 1901 “Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit.” ??? (6) A recent inquiry from James Dixon has revealed a previously…
- “Chicago Sculpture in the Loop” features Hermon A. MacNeil’s Work at Marquette Building (5) Gregory H. Jenkins has posted stories of the Marquette Bronze…
- Hermon MacNeil Sculpture in the Chicago Loop (5) Gregory H. Jenkins AIA, Chicago architect and keeper of the …
- ~ ~ ~ “The Most Happy Young Man I Know” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Hermon A. MacNeil ~ Success & Marriage! (5) 1895 Hermon Atkins MacNeil, American Sculptor (1866-1947) MacNeil’s bronze of…
- “PRIMITIVE INDIAN MUSIC” ~ Part 3: 1894 Eda Lord’s Ticket to the Chicago World’s Fair (5) Eda Lord, (the woman who purchased the MacNeil bronze statue,…
- MacNeil “Merry Christmas” (5) Christmas Greetings from the home of Hermon and Carol MacNeil. …
Related Images:
A 1894 Sculpture of Charles F. Browne ~ ~ ~ by Hermon A. MacNeil.
Posted by: | CommentsOut of public view, deep in the archives of the Chicago Art Institute rests a 127 year old bust of Charles F. Browne, American artist.
Cast in Bronze with a dark brown patina, the piece is signed on pedestal; “MacNeil ’94” / “American Art Bronze Foundry. J. Berchem. / Chicago”
Charles Francis Browne, MacNeil Colleague and American Artist.
The subject was Hermon MacNeil’s colleague, frontier traveling companion, and studio mate in their Marquette Building studio. The piece came out of their years in Chicago after the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
The archival piece enters its third century of history “OFF VIEW” at the archives of the Art Institute of Chicago. Here we offered it exclusively to You, —“Friends of Hermon Atkins MacNeil” — & followers of ‘HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com’. ENJOY !!
1895. With Hamlin Garland as their guide, the pair rode by train and horse back to the south west territories of the Navajo, Hopi, (Moqui). MacNeil recalled years later, “We found Indians a plenty and perhaps because I was keenly interested in them I was in heaven and I flared to a high pitch, working from sunrise to dark. …”
“Browne painted murals for the Children’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition and became an instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago’s rapidly growing school.” 2
Hamilin Garland and Browne were “double” brothers-in-law having married sisters of Lorado Taft, the chief sculptor of the Exposition. Taft was the brother of both of their wives. They all along with MacNeil were part of the Eagles Nest, a summer artist colony in Oregon, Illinois. Browne was a founder of the summer group.
Portrait of Charles F. Browne by H. A. MacNeil 1894. Art Institute of Chicago. [Signed on pedestal; “MacNeil ’94” / “American Art Bronze Foundry. J. Berchem. / Chicago”] 1
The dating of the bust of C. F. Browne precedes their venture to the Southwest Territory but documents the shared years of their early careers in the 19th century.
Writing in 1943, MacNeil recalls these years in Chicago:
“I took a small studio in Chicago and tried to see if I could make a go of it. C. F. Browne, painter, was also stranded there and I invited him to share a studio with me. During that year (evenings) I was asked to teach sculpture and drawing in the school of the Art Institute and also had the good fortune to have four bas-reliefs to do illustrating the life of Pere Marquette.” [ MacNeil, Autobiography
MacNeil’s four bas-reliefs of the life of Pere Marquette still make frame the four-door entrance of the building
The Marquette Building panels after cleaning efforts several years ago sparkle with history and beauty at the 140 South Dearborn Street entrance.
Chicago Architecture celebrated the building renovation and mentioned the 126 year old sculpture panels”
“At the main entrance are four bronze relief sculptures by Hermon A. MacNeil illustrating Father Marquette and Louis Joliet’s travels. They depict the pair launching their canoes, meeting Native Americans, arriving at the Chicago River, and interring Marquette’s body. On the revolving doors are kick plates with tomahawks and push plates with panther heads designed by Edward Kemeys (of the Art Institute lions fame). The vestibule features French and Catholic motifs like fleurs-de-lis and the cross.”
~ ~ ~ ~ Chicago Art Institute Notations for this work ~ ~ ~ ~
Portrait of Charles F. Browne by H. A. MacNeil 1894.
Portrait of Charles Francis Browne. Date: 1894
Artist: Hermon Atkins MacNeil. American, 1866–1947
ABOUT THIS ARTWORK: Currently Off View
SOURCES:
- Art Institute of Chicago. Portrait of Charles Frances Brown by Hermon MacNeil. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/102974/portrait-of-charles-francis-browne
- See Also: M Christine Schwartz Collection. https://schwartzcollection.com/artist/charles-francis-browne/
