The morning call., 1893-09-23

mo is simply an employe of Happers-
berger, brought here to model clay at
certain wage per diem, he may be prose-
cuted UNDER the alien contract labor law.
GuielmO came from the artistic Ba-
vaTian capital. Munich. 1t was there that
Mr.. Happersberger had become Jealous
disciple OF PhidIas and Praxiteles-there
at the Royal Academy of Sciences-and
doubtless when he won the day against
twenty-five rivals and obtained the big
contract he looked around Tor modeler,
bethought him of his townsman and forth
with sent for Gulielmo.
One OF HappeTsberger's twenty-five COM
petitors was Mr.. Edwards. This gentle
man had been the honorable secretary of
the Society of SculpIors of England.
society which eniOyed the aristOeratie pat
ronage of the Duke of Manchester, Wis
count Bury. MP. Viscount Ranelaugh,
the Duchess of Beaufort, the Warehouses
of Ely, Lady Georgiana Codrington and
the DOwager Lady Lichhsld. Besides
having presided over studios in London
he had followed his vocation-or art-in
Paris, Florence and Rome. previous to
settling himself down in this city. Here
his skill has been demonstrated in the
three statues for the Flood building, For
tune. Baechus and Ceres, medallion of
James Lick, and four figures for Mrs.
Leland Stanford at Paio Alto, TO represent
Aristotle and the historians Herodotus
aud Piutarch. The Flood statues were not
used upon the building but were the
subjects of considerable litigation instead,
which terminated in Edwards favor.
Besides him were Miss Ida Lawson of
Rome, Walter NJ. Axtell of Boston, Marion
+. Wells, Rupert Schmid and Gustave
Behrend. of this city; Caspar Buber and
Henry Baerer. of New York; Charles
Niehaus of Cincinnati, Karl Gerhardt of
New Haven, Rogers of Philadelphia and
other noted workers in stone and metal
Naturally there was great deal of rivalry
and Edwards withdrew.
After the first competition, in which de-
signs only were used. Secretary Matthews
of the Lick trust found it necessary to in-
wife contest OF models. In that Rupert
Schmid. Mr.. Happersberger, force of
architects and another OF ood-carvers
entered. and the prize fell to Happers-
berger.
This group of statuary is only one of
many requests made by James Lick on
September 81. 1875. to the public. To the
bronze group 10 adorn City Hall place
100000 was to be devoted in the following
words of the thirteenth trust:
And in further trust TO erect. under the super
vision OF the said paIties OF the second part
and their successors, at the CITY Hall, IN the
city and county of San Francisco, a group of
bronze statuary. well worth 100000, which
ures the history OF California; first from the
early settlement OF the missions TO the aeuuisi-
ton by the United States; second. from such
acquisition by the United States 10 the time
when agriculture became the leading interest
of the State; then from the st-named period
TO the first day Of January, 1874.
1t was the third board of trustees, con-
sisting of Captain Richard S. Floyd, Edwin
b. Mastick and Charles NJ. Plum of this
city. aud George Schonewald of Monterey.
which awarded the work to Happers-
berger. Its circular was sent out in Nav,
1857. Happersberger's design consists of
a hexagonal base with pedestal, the la tier
surmounted with statues of Eureka" and
a bear, and the base supporting groups
illustrative of the missionary, mining and
agricultural periods OF the State. A great
deal Of historical bas-relief work is 10 60
upon the sides of the base.
Day by day Gulielmo is forming ia CLAW
piece after piece of this monumental
group. and as fast as be has finished the
model cast is made at the bronze foundry
of Whyte q De Rome. Little has he sus-
pected that anybody would consider him
to be an alien contract laborar, and prob
ably when his employer, Mr.. Happers-
berger. takes a survey of the little imita-
lion Venus of Milo, the casts of torsos
from the Partbenon, the death masks of
the composer of Der Freischutz' and the
busts of several Caesars of ancient Rome.
I
characteristic and typical pieces of Cali
fornia imagery, he will wonder If sculptur-
ing and bronZe-casting are also to be re-
garded as common, everyday labor. What
would w. w. Story, the maker of the Key
Monument say?
Probably, as a contributor to the Sculp-
tors journal and Fine Art Magazine OF
London wrote in March, 1863. there is a
wide difference between sculpture as an
art and sculpture as a labor. 1--WE have
sculptors, IL is true" wrote he, ''but, with
rare exceptions, no sculpture as yet has
been produced on these Islands that en-
titles us to locus standi among the con-
tlnental nations In the art OF sculpture"
That sculpture is generally recognized as
Al art very few people will be foolhardy
enough To contradict. Literature and the
lexicOns have both recognized Ii such
among the Egyptians it was one of their
great trinity. 1t was placed side by side
with painting and architecture; and the
Greeks and Romans followed the genius of
the Nile. But is clay-modeling TO be
placed on the same footing? Is Ii TO be
considered also as an art, or is IL simply
skilled laborp These are questions that
come up in GHlielmo's case.
Another point involved is whether
Guliemo Is working by the day as Hap
persberger's employe; was he brought
here for that purpose and with that under
standing? Mr.. Edwards says he has heard
that Gulielmo receives Sc day for his
work.
Mr. Edwards mentions the names of sew
| eral other local eculnt0rs who are anxious