Norwich bulletin., 1915-01-12
DORADO TAFT LECTURES
 AT SLATER MEMORIAL
Reviews American ScUlpture-St. Gau- dens the Greatest We Have Pro- duced

The illustrated lecture by Lorado Taft of Chicago at Slater hall on Mon- day evening under the auspices of the
 Art Students association, was well at tended The subject was changed to that of American Sculpture, which Mir.
 Taft made very entertaining as well
 as profitable.
 He spoke of the greater amount of work done in the east along this line. The west is still groping, but it has
 seen the vision.
 Only Century Old. Of course American scul pture IS only an addenda to the great art of past
 ages It Is only a century old; as the 1 first American sculptor was born in 1S00, But this one century has been full of nOmentOus impulse. 1t is q fascinating story, this one of the pro gross and promise of American scUlp- Lure and the last ten years have deVel- l Oped as much work as was done in all the 90 years preceding. Some people may think art only a. frivolity. It is not; It is a religious duty. Without it, 1 life would be ineEplicable, something ghaStlY and monstrous. Something more than mere existence, comfort and even mentairexercise is needed to give 1 it explanation. Art gathers up emo tiOns and puts them into a storage battery for future. use. There are lit i tie geniuses in every conmunity-uCy
  the others perhaps; people who need l to be encouraged. There were such ] people back in colonial days. Begins with a Woman. The story of American sculpture be- l gins with a WCman Mrs. Patience 1 Wright of Bordentown, who made l things in wax. Then there was Will 1 liam Rush of Philadelphia, who carved 1 a, head from a. pine Bnot and made | pretty wood statue of a. nymph. now 1 preserved in bronze. The two first sculpt0rs were Horatio Grenough of l Boston and Hiram Powers of Vermont and Ohio. Their work seems crude today. but it was fairly good for theirs and a stepping stone to better. Next were shown works of Thomas CraW- ford, Wls0 had the spirit of an artist, | though he failed in execution. The Jackson by Clark Mills, he described 1 as audacious, though the second one, done in 1856 by H. K. Brown and now in Union Square, N Y, is one of the worlds really good ones. Centennial Exposition Work. Th& centennial exPosition in 1876 called up pictures of some good work by ". W. Story and also by Erastus Palmer of Albany. Some work by l Thomas Ball was well composed. | Thomas Gould was not so good as Randolph Rogers. or as RhinehaTt, 1 John Rogers, sometimes childish and tIresome, is yet wholly American. liar l rjet Hosmer was the first trained sculptor. After her came John Gib- son and the dean of American scuIp- i ture until his death, John Quincy Adams Ward, Especially noted were his statue of General Thomas and of Henry Ward Beecher. Howard Rob erts was the first to discover Paris as a place to study sculpture in The Greatest of All Then came the greatest of them all, Augustus st. Gaudens. In his series of fine work AIr. Taft praised tine statue of Admiral Farragut and of Gen. Sherman and the two statues of Lincoln one of them new, and his portrait reliefs. The statue of Lincoln. now in Chicago, is the finest in this country.
 Best Known Today. The best known artist today is Dan fel C. French. His versatility was shown by. pictures of Dr. Ga1laudet, his ! popular memorial, beautiful work at the Chicago fair and from the New York custom house. Mac Mounies is another fine artist as his jewel of 2 | fountain at the fair proved. Paul i Bartlett is a gifted member of the French academy. His Michel Angelo and Lafayette in the Louvre are beau tifuI creations. George Barnard has done some tremendously fine work and gives inspiration 10 others.
 The work of several ether prominent tectura1 in his designs-was followed by pictures of creditable work by some 1 of Mr. Taft's- pupils, one of them a boy who had been working in 9 coal mine.
 Allen Latham assisted in showing the pictures and Principal H 4. Tir- rell introduced the speaker.