Archive for Beaux-Arts
Charles Francis Browne … MacNeil … Garland ~ Part Two
Posted by: | CommentsA recent post of Aug 13, 2021, highlighted a hidden bust of C. F. Browne, an early friend of Hermon A. MacNeil:
MacNeil’s bust of friend Charles Francis Browne – 1994
“A 1894 Sculpture of Charles F. Browne ~ ~ ~ by Hermon A. MacNeil.” =>
Out of public view, deep in the archives of the Chicago Art Institute rests a 127 year old bust of Charles F. Browne, American artist.
Of all the thousands of talented artists, craftsmen, and sculptors building the “White City” in 1892, three gifted young men would travel in 1895 by train and horseback to the NEW American “West.” They would share life-forming experiences, there in the “Four Corners” area where Colorado meets New Mexico meets Arizona meets Utah.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ THREE FRIENDS on a JOURNEY ~
~ Charles Francis Browne ~
~ Hermon Atkins MacNeil ~
~ Hannibal Hamlin Garland ~
Charles Francis Brown, at 33, was the oldest of the three. 
For a decade he searched to discover and develop his talents. At the Chicago World’s Fair he began by painting murals in the Children’s Building.
Charles was born in Massachusetts to parents with a long history in New England. His father was a builder and contractor. Charles had three siblings. The oldest became a headmaster; a sister died in childhood; and his younger brother a foreman in a watch factory.
In his second year of high school, Charles became sickly. For two more years he was treated for appendicitis (then called “inflammation of the bowels”). He never returned to school, but instead worked ill-suited as a clerk in a hat store. Eventually he started design work for a lithograph company.
The artistic environment and peers led him to evening classes at Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He worked in stained glass (to please his practical father). Working days with lithographs and studying nights at art school, he developed many visual skills. But entry into the Art School required passing rigorous exams in human anatomy. For which he was unprepared.
So in 1885, at the age of twenty-five he moved to Pennsylvania and enrolled in the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts — working full time under realist painter Thomas Eakins.
Nai-U-Chi Chief of the Bow, Zuni. 1895 by C.F. Browne – Sid Richardson Museum – Retieved at https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne. October 30, 2021.
Completing three years of study there, he went to Paris to study with renowned figural painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. His sojourns in the French countryside, inspired many paintings of landscapes in both oils and watercolors. Returning to the U.S. in 1891, he taught briefly at Beloit College before moving south to Chicago.
The Children’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition became the next canvas of his murals. Browne’s work became the walls of the building. After the Fair, his skills were sought as an instructor at the rapidly growing Art Institute of Chicago. MacNeil and Garland were part of the vast community of artists assembled in Jackson Park — home to the exhibition.
His trip in 1895 with sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil to the Southwest yielded subjects for his portraits of American Indian and figural scenes.
Later, 1897 he founded the journal Brush and Pencil, of which he served as editor until 1900. He produced hundreds of paintings in his career ahead.
Lorado Taft, provided a moving tribute to Browne at close of a fine life and career:
“No one among us has contributed more abundantly of his time to the service of the community… All of this activity combined with earnest, unremitting and valuable aid… would seem to be enough for one man. But… Mr. Browne, the citizen, has ever been first and foremost an artist. Never have we known a man more in love with nature… When one thinks of the joy that he has been able to record and to carry over to other hearts… it seems as though the most enviable of all estates is to be a landscape painter – a landscape painter like Charles Francis Browne!” CREDIT: https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne
~~~~~~~~
Hermon A.MacNeil
Hermon was seven years younger than Browne. Their friendship is documented by the fact that MacNeil invited Browne to share his studio, persuaded him to pose for the bust, and traveled to the Four Corners with Garland as guide. 
MacNeil, with the recommendation of Augustus Saint Gaudens, went from New York to the Chicago World’s Fair to work under Philip Martiny, who was sculpting the Electricity Building. After proving himself on the edifice spandrels and ornamentals, he was assigned “two statuary figures” on the upper structure. The Electricity Building’s main entrance was dominated by an imposing statue of Benjamin Franklin. Inside were housed the Tower of Light, displays by Western Electric, General Electric, American Bell Telephone, Edison’s latest phonographs and hundreds of other electrical exhibits from around he world. The exhibit was truly a celebration of the “modern” era of “Electricity.”
In 1894 after the Fair, Hermon modeled, completed, and cast the bronze bust of of Browne. Their trip together in 1895 inspired a decade of sculpting Native American images. Four decades of memorials, monuments, statues, building pediments and facades, coins, medallions, followed from his College Point Studio.
The “Prayer for Rain” depicts the Moqui (Hopi) runner carrying the snakes to the river to activate the rain cycle of nature.
SILVER -One of only 20 minted ~ SOM.#3 – 1931 Hopi Prayer for Rain 1931
In 1931, Hermon MacNeil would again memorialize that Four Corners trip in his design for the Society of Medalists — Third Issue. Nearly four decades later that inspiration would return afresh in the “Hopi Runner” — “Prayer for Rain”
~~~~~~~~~
Garland, the leader of the adventure, was 31 years-old when he led his two friends on their tour to the west. His story and exploits have been told in many other postings on this website:
Hamlin Garland: Story in 3 Parts by Dan Leininger, webmaster
PART 1 – “Hamlin Garland ~ MacNeil’s Guide” MacNeil and Hamlin Garland
PART 2 – The Garland Homestead in Wisconsin ~ A Hamlin Garland Memorial
PART 3 – Hermon MacNeil and Hamlin Garland ~ Connections Through the Years
Hamlin Garland was an accomplished novelist
Main-Travelled Roads was his first major success. It was a collection of short stories inspired by his days on the farm. He serialized a biography of Ulysses S. Grant in McClure’s Magazine before publishing it as a book in 1898. The same year, Garland traveled to the Yukon to witness the Klondike Gold Rush, which inspired The Trail of the Gold Seekers (1899). He lived on a farm between Osage, and St. Ansgar, Iowa for quite some time. Many of his writings are based on this era of his life.
By the time of the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893,[7] Hamlin moved to Chicago, where he lived at 6427 South Greenwood Avenue in the Woodlawn neighborhood. He is considered “a significant figure in the Chicago Literary Movement” and “one of Chicago’s most important authors”.[8] Moccasin Ranch Park, located near address, is named in his honor.[8]
- “Sell the cook the stove if necessary and come. You must see the fair”
-Novelist Hamlin Garland to his parents in 1893-
In Illinois, Garland married Zulime Taft, the sister of sculptor Lorado Taft, and began working as a teacher and a lecturer.[9]
A prolific writer, Garland continued to publish novels, short fiction, and essays. In 1917, he published his autobiography, A Son of the Middle Border. The book’s success prompted a sequel, A Daughter of the Middle Border, for which Garland won the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. After two more volumes, Garland began a second series of memoirs based on his diary. Garland naturally became quite well known during his lifetime and had many friends in literary circles.[10] He was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1918.[4] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlin_Garland)
CREDITS:
- Wendy Greenhouse, PhD. “Charles Francis Browne 1859–1920″. M. Christine Schwartz Collection (https://schwartzcollection.com/artist/charles-francis-browne/ ) retrieved September 20, 2021. This extensive biographical summary of the life of Charles Francis Browne is the most extensive and detailed documentary piece posted of his life and career.
- Melissa Wolfe Ph.D. and Joel S. Dryer © Illinois Historical Art Project. “Charles Francis Browne (1859-1920).” https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne. retrieved September 21, 2021.
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. …
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/
Judge Thomas Burke Memorial – “He quelled anti-Asian Rioters 135 years ago in Seattle!”
Posted by: | Comments
Judge Thomas Burke Monument, Seattle, Washington by Hermon A. MacNeil
1930 ~ Judge Thomas Burke Memorial by MacNeil
In February 1886, Judge Thomas Burke addressed an angry mob rioting against Chinese immigrants.
(The Judge’s public appeal occurred in the same year that MacNeil was being born over 3,000 miles away in Everett, Massachusetts), [ 135 years later, Anti-Asian bigotry and Violence against Asians appear to be nothing new . ]
“Judge Thomas Burke played a key role in calming Seattle during the anti-Chinese riots, which occurred in February 1886. Addressing a hostile audience, Burke called upon his considerable stump speaking abilities — one commentator said the Burke “had the golden gift of eloquence which has been likened to that of Patrick Henry” — to point out that minority rights must be respected. Burke also told his listeners that they should be concerned with the city’s reputation. The riots were settled by cooler heads and by the intervention of the 14th U.S. Infantry.” [Source: Thomas Burke (railroad builder)]
Forty-four years later,
Hermon A. MacNeil
was commissioned to sculpt a fitting memorial to this heroic, civic pioneer of Seattle, Washington.
The Memorial to Judge Thomas Burke (designed in partnership with famous architect Carl F. Gould* also an 1898-1903 student at École des Beaux Arts in Paris) exhibits MacNeil’s classic Beaux Arts design and allegorical figures.
Beneath the bronze bas relief of Burke’s profile, the engraved stone pilaster reads: “Patriot, Jurist, Orator, Friend, Patron of Education, First of every Movement for the Advancement of the City and State, Seattle’s Foremost and Best Beloved Citizen.”
Judge Thomas Burke
1930 ~ Thomas Burke
— Remembered as a Railroad Builder
“Burke came to Seattle in 1875 and
formed a law partnership with John J. McGilvra; he soon married McGilvra’s daughter Caroline.[2] He established himself as a civic activist: one of his first projects was to raise funds for a planked walkway from roughly the corner of First and Pike (now site of Pike Place Market) through Belltown to Lake Union.[7]
Cartoon of Thomas Burke, railroad man
He served as probate judge
1876-1880[8] and as chief justice of the Washington Territorial Supreme Court in 1888.[3]
“Irish as a clay pipe,”[9] and well liked by early Seattle’s largely Irish working class, as a lawyer Burke was well known for collecting large fees from his wealthy clients and providing free legal services for the poor. [Source: Thomas Burke (railroad builder)]
With a open-heart for the poor and immigrants, Thomas Burke rose not only in the legal profession, but also as a probate judge and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Washington Territory. He remained a civic and national leader until his dying breathe at age 76.
“Thomas Burke collapsed on December 4, 1925, while addressing the board of the Carnegie Endowment in New York City. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, caught him as he fell. He wrote that Burke died “in the midst of an eloquent and unfinished sentence which expressed the high ideals of international conduct.” [Source: Thomas Burke (railroad builder)]
Thomas Burke – – – A man well remembered (Obituary HERE)
Hermon MacNeil – – – A Sculptor of Memorials
Related posts:
- MacNeil’s ~ Thomas Burke Monument ~ 1929 (6) Judge Thomas Burke Monument Seattle, Washington ~ Volunteer Park…
- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ~~~ has DIED this evening! (5) Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died. She was the first Jewish…
- Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln! ~ MacNeil’s Sculpture Released from Vault ~ MacNeil Month #4 (4) Abe Lincoln will be a little late for his…
- Presidents Day 2020 ~~ MacNeil Month ~~ Wm. McKinley ~~ Abe Lincoln ~~ Geo. Washington ~~ “THEY ARE ALL THERE” — H.A MacNeil’s Sculptures of 3 Presidents ~~ (4) “They are still there” celebrates several re-visits and discoveries of…
- “Confederate Defenders Monument” Spray Painted on May 30, 2020. (4) May 30, 2020; Six Weeks ago the “Confederate…
- “MacNeil Medallion” generates new Photos of Flushing’s Lady Liberty (4) In Flushing, New York, The World War Monument by Hermon…
“Hermon and Jo” ~~ Story #1 ~~ For MacNeil Month ~ February 2021 ~~
Posted by: | Comments
Jo Davidson, Sculptor, 1937
Hermon A. MacNeil sketch by Charles D. Daughtrey.
Jo Davidson
started as a
“studio boy” for
Hermon MacNeil
in 1903.
NOW,
February 2021
MacNeil Month
will showcase …
FOUR Stories of
“Hermon and Jo”
from their nearly fifty years of friendship.
PLUS A SURPRISE BIRTHDAY
UNVEILING on February 27th !!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
STORY # 1
Jo Davidson ~ begins here …
From his late teen-years to his mid twenties,
Jo appears as a talented, outgoing, vagabond.
A vagabond can be defined as …
- an itinerant, a wanderer, a nomad,
- a wayfarer, a traveler, a gypsy
- a person who wanders
- from place to place
- without a home or job.
“I was born on New York’s lower East Side and the memories of early youth are vague and shadowy. I remember long, dark halls, crowded tenements, strange sour smells, drab unpainted walls and moving — we were always moving. … we were exceedingly poor and often didn’t have enough to eat.” * Between Sittings, p. 3.Samantha Baskind tells Jo’s story this way: Davidson was born in the ghetto of New York’s Lower East Side to immigrant parents who had fled the Russian pogroms. Encyclopaedia Judaica.[ def.: pogroms: ethnic cleansing, persecutions, massacres, exterminations, slaughter …]
“Father had beautiful eyes, a long white beard, and the face of a prophet. I can still see him moving about the house almost like a spirit. He was always praying and a sign of affection from him was a rarely given luxury.” * Between Sittings, p. 3. and Joel Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries…, p. 11.
Jo went with his Father, Jacob, to synagogue on Saturdays, but kept out of his way for fear of offending him. When he asked “where did Cain get his wife?” his Father father smacked him down by stating that “with God everything is possible.”
“No one was ever to know for certain what it was that Jacob Davidson thought that having a son meant. Whatever it was, it was obvious — almost right away — that Jo was unlike anyone his father had expected. In Fact, Jo was like no one else. He asked far to many questions. He made pictures of everything he saw. He was so filled with life and laughter that everyone around him responded to it. Everybody — everything — small or large — interested Jo.! It was a good thing for a boy that his mother, Haya, understood him completely. ” [ Kuhn, The World of Jo Davidson, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, Jewish Publication Society, New York, 1958. p. 4.]
“She was tiny, energetic, practical, the one on whom the whole family leaned. The Davidson’s were exceedingly poor and often didn’t get enough to eat. She would distract the family from their hunger with her wonderful story telling of her past life in Russia, her grandfather who adored her and raised her, and their father’s family filled with scholars and rabbis.” Between Sittings, p. 3,
“It is curious how little I remember of my school days. I was always in a dream, vague and lazy. I understand now — being underfed, I wanted to sleep all the time.Yet for all their poverty, Jo recalls the touch of “a warm glow which came from my mother (Haya) and sisters (Nancy, Rachel, and Rose) who surrounded me with love and affection.”Between Sittings, p. 3, 6. And Joel Rosenkranz, Rediscovderies
For some time, Jo’s family thought he should become a doctor. So he was sent to New Haven moved in with his sister, Nancy, and her husband, David, a graduate of Yale Medical School. In between cramming for Regents’ exam, Jo befriended Randall the college photographer. He loaned Jo a photograph of Dr. Arthur Hadley, of Yale University. Jo began using his skills to make a burnt wood portrait of the new president. When Jo finished, Randall displayed it in his storefront window. The next morning Jo returned to the store to find a crowd of people looking in the window at his portrait. It was marked “sold.” Jo got a check for $25.
The buyer, Mr. Pardee, requested that Jo visit him in his office. Seeing the sketchbook in Jo’s pocket, Pardee asked to examine it, then requested permission to show two drawing to the head of the art school. On seeing the sketches, Professor Neimeyer invited him to come and work in the Art School — tuition free — saying, “We are glad to have young men of talent.” So Jo began drawing a live model with other Art School students. Eventually he sketched the model from so many angles that he tired and lost interest. Taking a break, he roved through the building. He found a basement room full of plaster casts and modeling stands, and he walked in.
Jo finds CLAY and “touches the rest of his life … ”
“I found the clay bin, put my hand in it, and touched the rest of my life. The cool wet stuff gave me a thrill that I had never before experienced.”
He began building clay on a stand, copying a mask of Saint Francis nearby. He lost track of time, then was startled when he realized the modeling instructor, Mr. Boardman, was standing behind him. The instructor asked how long Jo had studied modeling. Jo said this was the first time he had touched clay.
“He did not seem to believe me, which gave me the feeling it was not too bad. We talked for a long time and the result was that I decided to chuck medicine and take up sculpture.” Jo asked who taught sculpture and was given the name of Hermon A. MacNeil. Between Sittings, p. 8-10.
Hermon MacNeil ~ enters Jo’s life …
JO finds Hermon MacNeil and his College Point Studio. 
“By 1903, with his flirtation with a medical career ended, Jo was back in New York working as an assistant in sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil’s studio.” RosenKranz, p. 11.
PHASE ONE ~ Jo and Hermon: A previous story on this website tells the next phase the story
CLICK HERE to read the whole saga as Jo described it, 50 years later after Hermon’s death. Jo relates meeting Hermon, asking for a job, getting turned down, bargaining for pay from a Scotsman … [click link for More]
PHASE TWO ~ Jo and Hermon WORKING in the MacNeil Atlier with Henri Crenier and John Gregory as the studio boy . => CLICK HERE for full story …
OR JUST READ JO’S ‘PUNCH-LINE’ TO THE STORY BELOW –
Jo FUNNY STORY concludes: “Henri Crenier took a special delight in teasing me. I liked him and took it good-naturedly. But one day I lost my temper and we came to blows. I knocked him down and relieved my feelings by giving him a healthy pummeling. I was so busy that I did not hear MacNeil come into the studio. Suddenly I heard him say: “Jo, when you get through, will you mix me a little plaster.”
Hermon MacNeil outside his Studio about 1945. [Courtesy of Kenilworth Historical Society & Joel Rosenkranz. Photo by: Violet Wyld
Jo Davidson (about 1922)
NOTE THIS WELL:
HERMON’S INTERVENTION: MacNeil did not scold. He did not raise his voice. He did not even tell Jo to stop, for he probably saw the teasing and taunting that the young 18-year-old had taken from the other Assistants, Henri and John. In essence he said,
“When you feel you are sufficiently through pummeling Henri Crenier, (my master assistant), would you mix me a little plaster.” Jo must have found Hermon to be quiet a contrast to his Father whose “signs of affection were rarely given luxuries” Fifty years later Jo tells the above story in his biography, then concludes with: “The summer passed quickly. Those were rich and full days. I was sure of my vocation. I was going to be a sculptor.”l
“Rich and full, the “sculptor to be” went on searching the world for another decade to develop his own style and skills as a sculptor. Then in the next 40 years, Jo Davidson shaped portrait busts of over a hundred world famous people. BUT the kindness of Hermon MacNeil seemed to be a pleasant memory.
MORE “HERMON & JO” STORIES TO COME … on Feb 8th
#2 The Wanderer & The Monument Maker
~~~~
NOTES:
- Jo Davidson, Between Sittings: an informal autobiography of Jo Davidson. Dial Press: New York, 1951. PP. 3.
- Connor, Janis and Joel Rosenkranz, photographs by David Finn, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works, 1893 – 1939, University of Texas Press, Austin TX 1989.
SOURCES:
- Jo Davidson, Between Sittings: an informal autobiography of Jo Davidson. Dial Press: New York, 1951. PP. 3-16.
- TIME, “Political Notes: Glamor Pusses.” VOL. XLVIII, No. 11, September 9, 1946. pp
- Connor, Janis and Joel Rosenkranz, photographs by David Finn, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works, 1893 – 1939, University of Texas Press, Austin TX 1989.
-
Jo Davidson, (1883-1952). Jewish Virtual Library: a project of AICE. Source: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jo-davidson. recovered on Jan 11, 2021.
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..
