Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-01-06
LARKIN G.. MEAD'S WORK.
Something Which His Friends In Brati
tlebOrO Will Read With Interest.

auctions.
Under date of Dec. IA, 1892, Martha Ira
cy Owler sends letter from Florence, Italy,
to the Hartford Daily Times, which is de-
voted to a bright and entertaining sketch
of Larkn G.. Mead and his work After
reciting the familiar facts of Mr.. Mead's
birth in Chesterfield, his boyhood life In
Brattleboro, the fashioning of the "Snow
Angel" on the spot where the Wells foun-
tain now stands, and tracing from this be-
ginning the various steps in his upward
career, the writer has this to say about
some of Mr.. Mead's most notable produc-
tions
OF Mr.. Meads earlier works perhaps few
have been more popular than his carefully
studied columbus Appealing to Isabella
of SPAIN" and that touching souvenir of
his battlefield experience, "rhe Returned
Soldier" that everybody knows so we'll.
"The Listening Echo that he chseled
very soon after opening his Florentine stu
dio, and that somehow strangely suggests
his bOyhood's dreams and hopes, was sold
| for a large sum before it was completed.
| The noble national Lincoln monument re-
Gently inaugurated with imposing ceremo-
MES in Springfield, Illinois, will be for all
time inseparably identified with the great
| emancpator. His bias reliefs for the Wash
! ingtoh monument are art and history and
portraiture combined in an impressive Sc
res. 1t was through his admiration of the
forming and grouping of these figures, that
the famous Duprcz, winner of the Golden
! Prx-d IIonneur of Paris, and very prom
G,,l,
directory, proposed Mr.. Mead for profess
sorship in this great school "because," he
said, they "could not afford to lose the op-
portunity of securing so valuable an acqu-
sition to its ranks as Mr.. Mead, through
the grouping and pose of figures in the
Washington relieves, had proved himself"
And this was how there came to the young
molder of snow an honor accorded to no
other American, and how he is now prof
fessor in the most noted Institution of its
| kind in the whole world
The first of the Washington relieves
shows the patriot seated on his spirited
horse at the moment of taking command
of the curiouSly mixed ranks Of the Colon
al army; toward the horizon line there
are the green heights of Lexington; just be.
hind the general there are the grant Old
elms Of Cambridge, shrltcring its lowered
church, and quaint old house or two; at
Washington side, and As near as may be,
the country women and children press for
ward to see and salute the guardian of theil
homes and liberties. The second relief Is
a fine delineation of the surrender Of Corn
wallis. In the third, at the end of the war
Washington resigns his commission in the
midst Of iliustrious patriots, who are group
ed about the chair from which he has risen
The last of the series shows the inaugu
ration of Washington at the mouient whrr
the oath of Office is being administered by
Chancellor Livingston. In these bas relief'
there is a Capitalization Of Mr. Mead
greater powers; rare combination Of
strength and delicacy; poetic yet truth
full representation of the greatest epochs r
our Republics history.
Mr. Meals own nature is so symmetr
cal that he enters completely into whatever
spirit his work may demand; much of hi
native buoyancy and wit are shown in thu
charming group he has called "YOuns
America" a sturdy boy-absolutey bub
bling over with vivaciy-in true boyiSl
Interpretation of the Glorious Fourth,
holds trumpet to his mouth with on,
hand, which he is sounding with all TIT
vigor of his fresh young lungs, while will
!
to a small cannon. Beside him stands hi
pretty little sister; "the very lovelipSt child
, figure have ever seem" has said Olive
Wendell Holmes. She is eager and inten
as the boy, but she holds her hands cosc
casped to her ears while she balances her
self forward in expectancy, for though sh
, is by no means a coward, she is lust lit
tie hit afraid"
One of the loveliest of all his works |
Mr.. Meals "Venice, bride of the sea-"
, female bust of almost ideal symmetry ris
ing from a great fluted shell that is in
) crusted with sea-weed and other smalle
shells; the face is grave, sweet and dreamy
and the wavy hair, that is parted low 81
the brow, is banded with pearls, claspe
corOnet-like, with a scalop shell.
One of the tenderest of portrait group
is Mr. MPads stamford family" that
to be placed over the entrance to the mag
nifcient university which bears their name
the boy, who is the centre of the group an
J whose face Is full of earnest thought, eS
tends in one hand the deed of the institU
ton that is TO be his gift to the youth c
!. the world; his mother kneels at his lef
e unutterable devotion in her upturne
: countenance, and at the right stands tn
d father whose pride he was.
e Perhaps there is nothing in Mr. Mead
0 studio that more powerfully shows HI
U largeness of conception than his greS
"River god, or Father of waters Til
J. block of marble from which it was chlselle
: is the largest used for single figure sine
# the time of Michael Angelo, and weighe
a more than "A tons. For the massive syn
II metry of its proportions, the "River god
: might be a second Hercules; but instea
=, of standing, he reclines upon a rocky bed
about his brow is a chaplet of pine-cone
10 cotton balls and tobacco blossoms; his lie
It hands rests upon the limestone ledge
d which the river is born and from which
e guShes; at his feet are the turtle, the all
s gator and gigantic craw-fish; in his rigl
st hand he carries huge sheaf of corn al
d grain; his snowy beard sweeps low ov
IS his bosom; his whole attitude is one SUI
l. costing the meditative repOse of power.
For the pediment Of the facade of Il
# Columbian Exposition's agricultural bull
u ing-a beautiful alto relieve, that tells Il
/ story of Cibele, the earth goddess and h
a attendant deities-hss recently left NJ
Meals studio; it is sure to win unstnt'
admiration.