The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-12

tent and present in America after
series of tragic happenings that would
make a story in itself Mr. Partridge
! does not favor the idea of making an
equestrian statue from a single model,
however fine it may be, but gets his
results by blending the parts of many
horses, putting each where it will be
most effective when the statue is seen
on its pedestal
MR.. PARTRIDGE's UNIQUE RAIL
ROAD.
He knew that if the statue was to he
a success he must always work with
/ reference to the appearance of the
/ bronze horse and rider not in the ia
voring light of his studio. but in the
/ place they are destined to occupy for
| years, perhaps centuries, with the
! broad light of day streaming over
/ them from all sides, and not down
ward only from a cunningly devised
northern exposure. Some sculDtors
have made statues for the studio and
not for the public street or SQUARE. and
such have generally been disappointed.
Indeed, tits most difficult for an artist
rightly to judge his work with only
the walls of a little room about it.
and none of the towering buildings or
exterior surroundings that will later
dwarf it and greatly modify its eff
feet. A bit of plaster that seems colos-
sal in bed chamber may easily be-
come insignificant when removed to
public park
II was to help himself in this matter
that Mr.. Partridge, after finishing his
castings and preliminary studies, had
his statue railroad constructed It is
of the most interesting features of
modern statue making. Tt runs from
the studio into the open grounds. and
nv tic h.
may see how the statue upon which
he is at work will look among the big
trees, against the changing sky, and
under the shadows of surrounding
buildings When he pleases and the
weather suits, he can work in the open
air, making such changes in the clay
as seem best, and having the enormous
advantages of being able to judge his
work, while doing it. under the very
conditions that will surround it when
the work is finally judged on its pedes-
tial
A large equestrian statue (this one
of Grant, is double life size), weighs
many tons even in the clay, so that in
building the railroad great care had to
be exercised to secure at once suffi-
cient strength and ease of control. The
statue rests upon a nicely poised turn
table, which in its turn was supported
by four-wheeled truck. So perfect
was the adjustment of the turn-table /
that even when loaded with ten tons
of clay (the weight of the completed /
statue> Mr.. Partridge could turn it |
smoothly with a movement of his |
hand, whereas by the old methods the |
strength of three or four men would /
have been required
Of course it is understood that the |
life castings taken from Dante and |
other horses were only used by Mr.
Partridge as studies and adiuncts. in
no way taking the place of that feeling
for form and line which is the sculp-
tors gift and without which all else
would be valueless. Similar life cast
irgs were taken from men models and
were used in perfecting the generals I
pose; but it was not by the use of these
alone that the sculptor rendered the
soul and personality of the man. That
came from native insight, from wears
of labor, and was realized only bv the
exercise of almost uncomfortable pa
thence.
One morning after Mr.. Partridge had
been working on the clay for nearly a
year and half, and the statue stood
all but finished, there came one of
those misfortunes that tear the sculn-
-or's heart. In the silence Of the night
while Partridge and his men and his
horses and his dogs were sleeping,
here came a noise like a thunder clap
md the whole studio was shaken.
four tons and half of the modelled