Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-01
HONOREOST. GAUDENS
Memorial Exercises Held in
New York Yesterday.
WORLD OF ART PRESENT
Mayor Mcclellan Delivered the
Principal Address.
POEM BY r. W. GLIDER
Will Low, Charles Robinson Lamb
and Spencer Trask Were Also
Among the Speakers.

NEW YORK, February 29.-Exercises
in honor of the memory of Augustus Saint
Gaudens were held today in Nendelssohn
Hall. and many eminent in the realms Of
art and literature foregathered to pay a
silent tribute to the dead sculptor.
Mayor George b. Mcclellan, who is a
writer on art was the principal orator.
and addresses were made by Will Low. a
fellow artist and associate of Saint Gaud-
ems: Charles Robinson Lamb. an artist,
and Spencer Trask. president of the
National Art School. Richard Watson
Glider read an original poem. A Requiem
for Augustus Saint Gaudens.''
Mr.. Trask. chairman of the meeting.
announced that the METROPOLITAN Museum
of Art had been collecting and preparing
a complete exhibition of Saint GaGdens'
work. which will be opened within q few
days.
Mayor McClellan's Address.
| The events in the life of Augustus
Saint Gaudens are so we'll known that he
who runs may read. That he was born
In Dublin. of a French father and an
Irish mother. in 1s4s; that he was brought
to this country when six months old, and
studied in the public schools of this city:
that ne worked as cameo cutter, and
| that he studied drawing at night at
| cooper Union; that when eighteen he
went to Paris and studied three years at
| the BeauX Arts under JOuffrOy and after
| ward two years at Rome and that he died
August~S ;. 1907. are facts In the possession
of all. But of the thousands who on the
morning of August read that great
| artist had died, how many understood
| that we had lost great American.
/, Saint GaudenS was virtually born in
! this country. He received the rudiments
| of his training in that most useful and
most American of our art schools; Cooper
/ Union. and he lived the most impression
| able years of his life during the period of
| the civil war. He was possessed of an
| admiration for the natural beauties of the
United States. profound reverence for
our institutions. an earnest patriotism and
| q sincere love for the country of his adOp-
I ton. When he went to Paris his charac-
ter had been formed, and he was in heart
and in spirit American.
| Saint GaudenS' individuality was SO pow
/ er full that he was able to take from the
academy its best. while leaving it's worst
severely alone. He acquired. during his
three years under Jouffroy and his two
years of constant association with his
I friends of the villa Medici. a polish and
and a perfection of technique that have
seldom been equaled. Yet there is in
his work freedom and strength wholly
his own. which always raises him above
any academic cOnVentlOnallty.
The polish of his style is perhaps best
illustrated by his portraits in low relief.
| Unlike Benvenuto, who could never for
get. that he had been trained a gold
fsmith. Saint Gaudens treats his subjects.
/ whether in the little four-inch portrait
of Mrs. Cleveland or in the somewhat
larger portraits of 1.-THE Richard Watson
Gi'ders'' and the children of Jacob A.
Schiff.' or in the almost life-size DR..
| McCosh and Robert Louis Stevenson.
never suggesting the gem cutter. but
| rather the freedom and the strength of
| the born sculptor.
Famous Statue in Rock Creek Gene
+; f9 terry.
His statue in the Rock Creek ceme-
| terry, variously Interpreted. is alone
enough to give him fame Yet inscruta-
bic and wonderful it is it might have
| beer modelled by another The air of
mystery, obtained by the effect of light
and shade and the cowled head. the hold
treatment of the drapery hanging in broad
folds, suggest the influence of such nre
Renaissance sculpture a. Suffers hooAad
ngGreS supporting the tomb of Philp Mi
| i'll tie Louvre. and the weepers around
fths' tomb of the Due de Berry in the
museum at Bourges. It's masterful
! but hardly his masterpiece.
-" upoii MS puDllc monuments that the
| fame of Saint Gaudens as a sculptor will
chiefly rest. OF these, four stand mart
| from the works of his contempora ries In
subject. in composition, in strength and
In restraint In theme and in spirit they
are are .itaLzed with the same lofty patriot
| Ism that inspired Rude's Chant du De-
| part They tell us, as can neither wit
ten nor spoken words. of the cause for
which our fathers fought and lived and
geo geo me Earrasut in Madison Square,
/ hn
the Lincoln at Chicago and. the Sherman
or the Plaza are the epic in bronze of the
| lie struggle of our country for the fri
umph Of principle.
The Farragut is Saint Gaudens first
| important work it is thu first ;,,nor
! tant and -creditable public monIIman,
erected In this country The ad,,ir !
stands firmly planted on his feet, a rupged
and noble figure, admirably nodoIed
ana lottlly conceived. The Madison Souar,
statue not only marks the beginning Of
the new era In American SCULPTURE hit is
noteworthy as the first canto Of ST.
Gaudens' war poem. We are conscious az
the salt and of the wind and of The
.'' III. .or IT IS the song of the sea 1t is
| the battle hymn of the men of Maine nf
the Gloucester men and of the onn
Island and Jersey fisher folk. who fo,,nh9
our wooden ships before white sn,adrens
We're thought of. and whose energy .nd
~ s nave "iaoe our nation sea power.
his conception of Lincoln.
IN the Divine scheme of human evo1u-
.lon each human being is given his an
pointed task. and as he performs thu,
task we'll or ill. according to the on,or~
tunlty ana grace that God has given him
SO he succeeds or falls, no matter wbetb
er or no he Is understood by his fe,lou,s
10 one man was given in 81 the task of
organizing the army of victory and If
| teachlng 1t how to fight to another tb
task OF completing the work which tho
|.f1rst had begun. To yet another H. W.
given to fight the good fight of loo,
cause. and having ventured and is,t
everything save honor. to win that splen.
did victory over self whose memory is
| one OF the most priceless possessions of
our common country. To Lincoln w.
| given the hardest task of all to weld to
gether the warning factions of a dis
| united country into HOMOGENEOUS and
a patriotic whole. To conquer the enemv
| without and silence the enemy within
| while surrounded by jobbery and orr. n
and double dealing. with a cabinet honavN
| combed with sordidneSs and selfish politi
| cal ambition, the task required for its ar
| complishment a man Of heroic mold lin
coin succeeded, and. having done so. died
| leaving to a reunited people the heritage
of his achievement and the legacy of his
| example and of his name
Whatever manner of man the real 7 in
coin may have been. the Lincoln who lives