Evening star., 1936-11-08
ARTIST SHOWS WORK
Fraser Permits The Stars Representative to
See Models of Noble Figures Which Will
Grace Memorial Span Approaches.

nor cluttered with superduous detail.
That the smooth sweeps Of the fanks
and breast of the animal should not
present too severe front, nor fail
to stand out from the structural
block of the whole, slender, tapering
reeds rise from the pedestal to meet
the body of the horse, forming the
background at the same time for
the figures that flank it, literature on
the one side and ambition on the
other.
THESE are represented by young
men, figures without any partic-
ular racial distinction, classic, rather.
in their universally. Their fine,
strong bodies stand erect, yet with a
suggestion of motion. One derives
from them the feeling that they are
going onward, up. Something of this
is caught in the imaginative quality
of their faces, for they are filled with
Imagination and a marked idealism.
Literature bears at his side, under a
forward swung arm, an open book,
and at his feet is a coiled serpent of
wisdom. Ambition holds the right
arm drawn back, as if pulling a bow
string, and holds the bow forward in
his left arm, ready to let fly his dart.
The figure Is filled with imagination,
strength, and an intangible quality of
determination. Ambition strides for
ward, loosing his darts behind him,
over his shoulder.
The second group. also with Pega-
sus as a central figure, presents a
slightly different aspect and mood of
that famous steed. In this group Pc
gasus bears a neck more definitely
arched, his head is bent down while
looking forward, and one foreleg is
not lifted, but arched. Yet the VOL
ume of the group corresponds with
that of the first group in general pro-
portions and effect. Pegasus now. is
fanked by Harvest and Music, and
Music, like Ambition, bears no bur-
den. It is represented as a youth
with fine, sensitive face, and again
it is filled with imagination and ideal
ism. Harvest, sturdy, strong and
wholesome young man, bears a sheaf
of bound wheat on one shoulder AMI
swings sickle in loosely dropped
arm. It was interesting to me that
in choosing models for these four fig
ures of the two groups, Mr.. Fraser
chose a young man who is in truth a
musician for Music and types that
seemed to him to possess the qualities
he was symbolizing for the other three
something which is not as difficult,
the sculptor assured me, as it may
appear to be.
At the base of the horse in this Sec
ond group is growing wheat, to corre-
spond with the growing reeds of the
first. Here, too, the slender stalks
serve as background for the larger
planes of the animals body and for
the figures that flank it, and here,
too, the detail of the slender grasses
serves as a balance for the unbroken
planes of the sculptured mass. The
sculptor pointed out to me that one
must always maintain this fine bal
ance in any art, that one must play
this effect against that, one impression
against another, so that the whole
gains by contrast and the eye is rested
but not distracted by diversity. When
one must maintain general impress
sion of massiveness and a unified
classic contour this is effected only by
the genius of the sculptor.
GONE must remember, too." he
added, that these figures will
be seen against the sky, approached
from below, so that one looks up to
them and does not meet them on a
level plane. They must loom above
the motorist or pedestrian, and their
proportions and structural interest
must survive the angle"
Perhaps no living sculptor is better
fitted to judge of these qualities than
James Earle Fraser himself, for his
inspired art, his pediments and mon
uments, his equestrian figures and
groups, his >bas-reliefs and friezes dot
the United States wherever the finest
has been sought to immortalize in
granite or marble or interpret in stone
or bronze, great national figures, his
toric eras or episodes, or symbolic in
terpretations. .
When he was only IT, he conceived
his End of the TRAIL" and that piece
of inspired sculpture captured the
public heart and imagination to such
an extent that Photographic rights
alone netted more than $250,000 to
those fortunate enough to have fore
seen an unprecedented popularity.
This did not include, by the way, the
modest sculptor himself. 1t is doubt
full if any citizen who has come of age
in the United States today is not IA
miliar with the lone Indian sitting
his weary horse. Explaining his con-
ception of the figures Mr.. Fraser said,
when I was a boy I lived near an
Indian reservation in Dakota. I knew
the Indians well and was fascinated
by the tragedy of their homelessness.
I wanted to express something Of that
tragedy in my own medium, for saw
them as people that was being