The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-07-12
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
What His Statue Looks Like On lis Granite
Pedestal.

Nobody can look at Mr.. Wards repre-
sentation OF Beecher without receiving, first
of all, the impression that the living man
made upon all who met him or who heard
him-the impression of exuberant vitality
| and of conscious power. The burly figure
is firmly planted, as of one who has taken
his stand and cannot be moved; and the de-
tail, from the rssolute and alert poise of the
head to the hat gripped In the pressure of a
powerful hand, is all adapted to carry out
the idea of courage and of independence.
1t is Enthusiastically the statue of an orator,
but it is not the statue of the pulpit orator,
VINO is assured beforehand of the sympa-
thies of his congregation. but rather of the
orator who faces hostile throng whose hos
tility he feels secure of his power to Quell,
says a writer in Harper's Weekly.
So BeecheT may have stood and looked
when he rose to speak for the Union to
British audiences in 1868. So he stood and
looked, twelve years later, over the COM
pany assembled at the first New England
dinner after his great ordeal, when lie felt
that many, and perhaps most, OF his hearers
blamed him for being there, and blamed
the manager of the banquet for having
invited him to be there 1t was occasions
like these that reused the manhood of the
man, and put the orator on his meltle.
Every detail of costume is not merely
authentic, as those who remember Beecher
will recognize, but it is also characteristic
of the independence and unconventlonality
and humanity of the man. His special
vocation is indicated only by the single
breasted coat of a clerical cut, while
the SLOUGH hat and the sleeveless coat tes-
tity that for this man the fashions of the
taiors had as few terrOrs as the formulas
of the theologians. The cloak has also
distinctly sculptural advantage in escaping
from the Formally and the inexpressiyenesS
Of modern dress. and i'll providing broad
masses of drapery. which at once accentuate
and palliate the buIkineSS of the figure they
inclOse. In a successful portrait statue, so
limited are the sculptOr's means of express
sion, every detail must distinctly conduce
to the general impression, and nothing is
beneath the careful attention of the artist.
In this statue ali the details distinctly
help the impression Of character we
have tried 10 intimate, SO that this may
be apprehended before the features are
even seen. But the face, little as it counts
for in the total impression of statue of
almost colossal size, is here, in a sense
other than that in which We commonly use
the phrase. speaking" likeness. The
leOnne head thrown back in leonine and
yet Joyous defiance, the dilated nOstrils, the
mobile mouth. all tell of the Joy OF power"
and the Joy of battle which nobody can have
heard or seen Henry Ward B echer without
knowing that he felt to the utmost. Doubt
less the sculptor has been fortunate in his
subject, for very few men in generation
have so much mature" as Beecher, and per-
haps not one other in the hundreds of thou
sands of his feilOw-citiZens of Brooklyn, but
doubtless, also, the subject has been fortu-
nate in his sculptor, for those who, not
having seen Beecher in the flesh, are to see
him hereafter in Mr.. Wards bronze will
see him at his best.
The accessories of the figure are equally
adapted to carry out its idea. The wide
sympathies of Beecher were among the
main sources OF his power as an orator, and
were an integral part Of the vitality and the
humanity that his living presence expressed.
1t was in the feeling for the slave that anil
mated so much Of what may be called his
political career, and in the love of little chill
dTen that abode with him all his life long,
that these sympathies were most conSpicu-
ouslv shown, and it is these that the scup-
tor has chosen for illustration in the slave
girl reaching up her palm leaves, and the
children with their tributary wreath. The
French scuptors of our time have shown
how much the expression of q portrait
statue may be heightened by the introduce
ton of accessory figures; and the figures OF
this pedestal elucidate and carry farther
the expression of the central figure in add-
ton to the plastic grace and charm that In
here in them. The pedestal of Quincy
granite, in the design Of which tue sculptor
has had the assistance of Mr.. r. NJ. Hunt,
the architect, shows an innovation in that
the whole surface is polished TO darkness
almost black, affOrdng a more effective
background and a more effective contrast to
bronze than the material usually employed.
The scale of the monument may be est-
mated by the fact that the statue is nine
feet in height and the pedestal ten, while
the figure of the slave girl is six feet and
two inches