Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-05-14
THE NORTH WINDOW
ny. LEILA MECHLIN.

Dean Inge, before leaving our
| shores, sounded a note of warming
with regard to immigration. The fear
he expressed was that our Anglo
Saxon civilization might be over
whelmed by the influx of people Of
an alien race. This fear Is by no
means groundless, but it should be
| held In mind that many Of those who
come to our shores as immigrants
bring with them rare gifts. This is
particularly true In the field of art.
| Again and again what might be cal)Sd
our native talent, has been. supple.
mented and strengthened by the tai
ent of the foreign.born, and if one
will take the time to look into the
| matter it will be found that not a few
of the greatest scuiptors that America
| proudly claims as her own have either
come to these shores as immigrants
or been born of immigrant parents.
OF these, Augustus Saint Gaudens,
the greatest sculptor that America has
| yet produced, is a shining example.
He was brought to this country when
AN infant by his parents. His mother
was an Irishwoman. his father q
lFrenchman. an humble shoemaker,
who for long after his arrival in New
York continued to work at this trade.
The boy, who showed an aptitude for
art, was apprenticed to cameo.cut-
| ter, and from this modest beginning
rose to the highest rank in art and
| universal esteem. To his genius
America owes some of her most beau
/ tiful works In sculpture-the statue
| OF Farragut, a great admiral in the
American Navy in Madison Square,
New York City, and of Sherman, a
great American general, at one of the
lower corners of Central Park, in the
same city, besides the splendid statue
of Lincoln, the great emancipation. in
Chicago, and the superb Adams me-
mortal. in Rock Creek Cemetery,
| Washington, D. G.
Karl Bitter, whose equestrian statue
| of Gen. Siegel may be seen on River
side Drive. New York City,, and whose
| Thomas Jefferson is to be found on
the campus of the University of Vir.
ginia, is another immigrant sculptor
who attained great distinction and
whose story is even more romantic in
| its way than was that of Augustus
| Saint GaudenS. He was born in Vienna
! In 1887 and studied art at the Vienna
Academy. In 1889 however, he re-
solved to seek his fortune in the New
| World. Arriving in New York City on
| November 2S, he two days later de-
clared his intention Of becoming a
citizen of the United States, from that
| moment casting his. lot completely
| with people, of his adopted country.
| The first thing he did was to go to
work as a stone carver for firm of
architectural decorators. There he
| heard about a prize offered by the
| Astors for a suitable design for bronze
doors for Trinity Church. He entered
/ the competition and to the surprise
! OF all, some months later, was declared
| winner. Thus he almost Immediately
! leaped i..to fame. His success in this
competition brought him TO the atten
/ ton of prominent New York architects
and led from one commission to an.
other. He was a great idealist a bril-.
| liantly talented man, and his death by
! accident in 1915 was regarded as a
! national calamity.
4 r X x x
| There are other names to he added
to the list, notably that of Victor
I David Bremen, a Russian by birth
| whose beautiful plaques and medals
gave him high rank and admission not
only to the foremost exhibitions. but to
membership in the leading American
art associations. To him was in
| trusted by the American Numismatic
| Society the commission for the John
Paul Jones plaquette and other no.
table works Rutzen and the, late
| Scion Borglum were the sons Of a
Danish woodcarver. who brought his
| anAjly TO this country and settled in
| the Far West when they were little
children. The Piccirilli brothers. who
| have not only done original work of
genuine merit, but served other sculp-
! tors as StonecutterS, are Italians
, seven brothers living together and
| working as happily in the new land
as though they had never been trans
/ planted. To visit their atelier. sit at
! their generous board and accept their
| simple hospitality is esteemed by all
real privilege. Adolph Weinman and
Albert Jaegers, both of whom have
| produced monumental works adding
TO the beauty of more than one of our
American cities, are of German birth;
| 1sidore konti, another-Whom America
! now claims and to whom one NAV
| confidently look for fine accomplish
ment, is by birth a Viennese: while
! among the younger men of foreign
| birth who have won success are Leo
i Lentelli of Bologna, Italy, and Aihin
| Polasek. Moravian by birth Mr.
-
years ago to win in competition a
| fellowship in sculpture at the Ameri-
can Academy in Rome, which enabled
| him to have three uninterrupted years
of study in the Eternal City, and travel
abroad. He is now instructor of sculp-
ture at the Art Institution of Chicago.
| Curiously enough, out great painters
[ have been until quite recently almost
| n - q fTt+ nov
| department OF art we have since the
earliest days of our Republic been able
to- lend to foreign nations as we'll
/ as borrow from them. Every one
is familiar with the story of the ro-
] mantle life of Benjamin West, that
7 earliest of American painters born of
! Quaker stock, who became president of
the Royal Academy of London and
won the patronage of the British
The recent death of John Singer
Sargent has brought vividly to mind
the fact that this great American
painter was shared by us with Great
Britain. In the National Gallery,
London, in the section devoted to the
British school, are to be found works
not only by West, but Sargent,
| Whistler. Millet, Schofeld and other
Americans by birth. Elihu Vedder
lived for many years and produced
his best works in Rome. In these
[later days, Mary Cassatt; Elizabeth
Nourse, Frederick Frtcseke, Edward
Cay, Alexander Harrison and a
score of other Americans have lived
and painted and been held in high
esteem in Paris.
| From the days of st. Memin to the
present time foreign artists have
| come to our shores exhibiting their
works and securing commissions, but
| In the majority of Instances they had