The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-01-03
STATUE TO JOHN c. CALHOUN.
Complete Description of this Work of Art.

Complete Description of this Work of Art
The European correspondent OF tn
Baltimore Sun, writing from Rome, un
der date of December l, says:
To-day I spent an agreeable half hou
in the studio of Mr.. Albert E. Harnisch
of Philadelphia. I found him mounted
up on high in sculptor's scafold, care
fully working out the details of the co
lossal model statue of John 9. Calhoun
This model is in "moulder's clay" ant
is fifteen feet high and on a studio dali
Of some twenty more feet high. Thus
MIR. Harnisch, away up aloft, hooked
like the little cherub old Dibden used Il
sing about in naval vocalisms of old.
/ mention this fact of Mr.. Harnisch''
personal work on every detail, for il
many cases the artist only imparts those
inspired little touches which are myste
riously called "6nishers," leaving the
bulk of the work to the "studio ghost
This conscientiousnes Of the young
Philadelphia in his art work is highly
creditable alike to himself and his mas.
teriy productions. This statue model Of
the great Calhoun is, indeed, animated
clay. can remember seeing Calhoun
when I was in the spring and he in the
winter of life. Indeed, I sat opposite
him at the dinner table for many Q day
when the boarding house of Mis-. Wash
ington, on F street, in the "city Of mag.
nifcent distances" twas the home OF many
''men of the time" .i.sa '2"2
In this colossal model I again see the
great "nulli6er." He is here, perhaps.
made to appear rather in the mid.sum-
mer than in the winter of life. The
prime of age is the happy mean for the
artist. There is none of that shaggy
long hair thrown back f.fully; none Of
that lion.like crouching that marked the
declining days of the hero of the Pal.
metto forest. He now stands erect in
that pose which gave him the greatest
prominence in the United States Senate
aud caused every eye and every ear to be
directed to the Southern orator.
His head erect and we'll posed, on a
1.-THE, nervous yet firm frame; his deep
set, stern eyes, beneath a massive brow /;
his pulsating nostrils and his compressed.
rigid lips, with the well-de6ned lines of
the cheek and chin of the oratorical
type, are all before you in this model.
The nervous right hand and arm are
half extended 1.-THE former being one of
those "great yet not large hands that
speak," and which Sir Arthur Helps has
30 we'll described in his charming book
of .'Friends in Council" The left foot
is advanced, and gives to the figure that
eight liyingness of senatorial grace" as
Cicero would say. !.
Indian like, John G. Calhoun inclined
to walk somewhat with his toes inwards
than outwards. Southern people all over
the world do 80, in contradistinction to
Northern people. I assume the dolce
far niente of Southern life superinduces
this, and remember Daniel Webster to
have said. that Commercial men, me-
chanics, tailors and dancing masters toed
Our notions of physical de.
portmentdo not comport with this idea
1 think I have read of St.
Paul being in-toed, and also that Cicero
was like zone who had trod the Indians
path" This pose in the Calhoun model
of Mr.. .Harnisch is agreeable to the eye,
and adds to the motion of speaking to
the Senator'S" which is the idea conveyed
by this art-work Of the real and the beau
ideal Senator. Standing in front of his
senatorial chair, on which is flung the
cloak he was wont to wear, you have be-
fore you the great formulator Of States
in all his earnest, breathing,
life.like character.
This figure will be cast in bronze after
the Roman style, which is much better
than that of. the Munich .mode.:sIt will
then be placed on :argranite rostra, which
will be semi. circular with Palmetto trees
of bronze, half inlaid, aud making the
superficial compartments usually pro-
duced by facade pillars.
At the base of this rostra will be seat
ed life size figures representing Truth"
in the front, "Justice" By one side, ellis:
tory" by the other, and in the rear the
great argument Of Calhoun, the "Consti-
tuition"
Approaching this and the groud are
four large granite steps that form an en-.
circling main base to the whole monu-
ment. This monument will make an i'm
pressiye and imposing testimonial in
Charleston, and will, altogether, be fully
forty:fve feet high. AS a work of art it
will be uniqds, not only in its vitality Of
the chief figure and the repose of the
secondary figures, but in the ornate and
ensemble.
Mr.. Harnisch can afford to rest his re-
putation on this work, and South Carroll
ma can equally afford to be proud of the
good taste in the selection of this artist
for this work. It would be premature to
say just now when South Carolina may
expect to welcome this enduring tribute
of bronze and granite to one who was,
fac;e princeps, the true metal of manly
statesmanship and the true rock Of pure
patriotism.
Permit me to briefly speak of the i'm
preston work of art of this kind con-
veys. Like true literary composition
of contemporary persons and manners,
there is no free play of idealism or the
forced whims Of Imagination in this work.
1t is simply true and truly simple. The
spirit of Calhoun comes up before you rs
well as the outer man. You breathe
"southern rights" and you feel the cav.
alier Carolinian; and you realize what
Taine describes when he says language,
a legislation, relation is never more
than an abstract thing. The complete
thing is the man who acts, the man, cor
poral and visible, who eats, walks, fights,
fabors. Leave on one side the theory
and the mechanism of constitutions, re.
ligion and their systems, and try to see
men in their senates, in their work shops,
in their Offices in their fields, with the
sky and earth, their houses, their dress,
cultivation, meals, as you do when, land
ing in England, or in Italy, you remark
faces and motions, roads and inns, q cit
izcn taking his walk, woman drinking.
Our great care should be to supply, as
much as possible, in memorial or tribute.
art of o-day, or contemporary Individual
literature, the want of the present, per.
sona, direct and sensible observation
,t;oo for ~ 10