Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-05-10
HE RESUMES HIS WORK.
frances Montague Handley Models
a Bust of His Daughter
in-Law

If you walk at sunset On the Piucean
hill and look down through the leafy
towering slopes your eye will be daxzled
10y the 'Tcfraetiou of the evening suns
rays on a dozen score OF great glass
skyightS. II is the famous studio dis
trict of Rome whence he dictates OF
art We're promulgated 80 the world
through countless centuries and where
the great masterpieces Of painting and
sculpture We're brought to triumphant
completion, Here the geniuses of hrusa
and modelling stick have carved their
names in immortal tyne on the art his
tories of the world, and here the great
and reverent students of art have fore
gathered from all the quarters of the
earth since time ialmemorial.
In cluster near the center of the
Via Margutta the three great American
sculptors of the end of the century had
their studios. Two Of them. Randolph
Rogers and Chauncey II. Ives, have
passed into the silent majority; the third,
Francis Montague Handley. who lives
in Milwaukee. and though he had
given up his dearly beloved art for TWEEN
ty years he has recently resumed it in a
labor of love. 1t was to please his son,
~. NJ Handley, that Mr.. Handley
once more set his hands and brain TO
rthe gentle work, and the portrait bust OF
young Mrs. J. Nj, Handley is the result
of this labor Of love.
Resumed After Twenty Years.
Although it has been twenty years
since the sculptor laid hands 30 clay,
his genius seems 10 have lost none of it's
cunning, for the qualities which stamped
his work with the seal OF greatness in
the past are richly found in his latest
work. Mrs. Handley is n wmsOmely
pretty woman. ana in rendering her fea-
lures Mr. Iland!ey has brought out par
tieularly the sweetness of expression.
the dreamy, tender retrospective quality
which is so elusive even in color and
almost impossible in the harder less
susceptible medium with which sculptors
perpetuate their subjects. The modelling
is particularly good; every soft rOundness
of flesh, the graceful waves Of the hair.
the rich lace falling from the bust in
natural folds, are brought out with un-
efring effect. At present the bust is
in plaster of paris, but it is eventually
to be done in bronze.
Mr.. Handley is an American by birth
and early education. though his father
was an English officer stationed in Cana
da and his mother daughter Of the fa-
nous Boucher family of Canada, which
gave two territorial governors to the
British colony in the old days. When
his father died the family moved to Eu-
rope that the two children. who showed
strong artistic tendencies should have the
benefit of the best training. In Rome
Mr.. Handley began the study Of his
life's work and his name soon became fa-
miliar to artists and their following. His
first important statue was a Madonna of
heroic size which won instant recogni-
ton. The beauty Of the conception, the
classic, serene ,ideailty nil combined to
make il no able work Like all his
statues it had a wonderful charm Of eX-
precision. Following this came series
OF portraits of famous people interspersed
with occasional works of distinct origi-
naIity and power About thar time his acJ
nuaintance with Whyte Melville the
English novelist, ripened into great
friendship and mutual admiration, and
two of Mr.. Handbags statues were in
spired by characters from Meville's
books. They are his Semiramide and his
Ishtar.
An Ardent Lover Of Horses.
1t was at the suggestion Of Melville
that Mr.. Handley took to modelling
horses. From earliest boyhOod he had
been an ardent horseman and lover Of the
equine. Knowing them as few men do,
he devoted himself to an even more init
mate study Of the anatomy of mans
friend and he started ont making por-
trait equestrian statuettes Of several not
ed people in England. The Duke of
Beaufort and Whyte Melville were
among the first. It was while stopping
with the Duke Of Beaufort that he met
and married his wife, who was n Miss
Adelaide Lawrence. daughter Of John
Lawrence, the most famous figure in fox
hunting in England. Mr. Lawrence. who
died last winter, was master Of the Ian
gibby and Shepstow pack Of hounds for
seyenty-two years and rode To hounds
consistently to the time Of his death,
though nearly ~ years OF age. A IA.
nous portrait Of Mr.. Lawrence on horse.
back was modelled by Mr.. Handley On
returning TO Italy after q couple Of years
In England executing orders for equeS-
trian statues there, ne executed an eques-
TRAN statue of the Duke Of Leuchten-
berg, nephew of the late Gar Of Rus
sis. The LeuchtenbeTgs were the Nap0-
leonic Beauharnais and the dukes moth
or, Grand Duchess Mary Of Russia, was
sister Of the late Gar.
About this time he took up the series
of studies of the picturesque Butter
or cowboys Of the Roman campagna.