American Sculpture - RW Norton Art Gallery

Around the Bierstadt Gallery
Harry Jackson (1924-
The Range Burial
Harry Jackson
1958
Hercules
Stampeding the
Mares of Diomedes
Gutzon Borglum
1904
I Want All the Reins
in My Hand
Anna Hyatt
Huntington
) is considered
a contemporary cowboy artist, although
he despises such labels. He ran away from
home to work on the range, returned to his
native Chicago for an art education, served
in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and
studied abstract art in New York City and
The Stampede
classical art in Italy. For this work, Harry Frederic Remington
constructed the bronze first, then etched
1910
the lithograph.
Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941), brother to
Solon, studied in Paris and came under the
influence of Auguste Rodin, sculptor of the
world-famous Thinker. He is most famous
for his monumental works, including a
Confederate memorial on Stone Mountain,
Georgia and the Mount Rushmore National
Memorial. This statue commemorates one
of Hercules' 12 mythic labors and was the
first piece of American sculpture bought for
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Bronco Buster
Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973)
Frederic
Remington
began sculpting at 19, and studied with
1895
many other famous American sculptors,
including Gutzon Borglum, at the Art
Student’s League of New York. In her
first exhibition, she had over 40 pieces on
display, rare for someone so young. In this
sculpture, Huntington revisits the myth of
Phaethon, son of Apollo, who disasterously
wished to drive his father’s chariot across
the sky.
The Remington Gallery
S ally
Paleolithic Woman
Sally Farnham
1912
The Rattlesnake
James Farnham (1876-1943)
never attempted sculpting until she was Frederic Remington
1905
hospitalized at the age of 32. While incapacitated in bed, her husband brought her
clay to pass the time. She grew to love it
and eventually worked up the courage to
show her first piece, Spanish Dancer, to the
prominent local artist, Frederic Remington.
Thus began a very informal apprenticeship
with the western master. This piece is a
companion piece to Remington's PaleoComing Through
lithic Man, gifted to Theodore Roosevelt
the Rye
as a reaction to the Theory of Evolution
Frederic
Remington
proposed by Charles Darwin. Both pieces
1902
are intended to be the original inhabitants
of Oyster Bay, New York.
The Remington Gallery
Sally James Farnham (1876-1943)
completed Remington's last work The Stampede
at the request of his widow after his sudden
and unexpected death in 1909. The figures
of the cattle, horses and rider had been
molded separately, and so Farnham had to
make a whole out of all the parts. She also
signed over all rights to the statue to Mrs.
Remington, and destroyed all the remaining
moulds Remington had, so that his pieces
would increase in value and support the
family he left behind.
The
American
Sculpture
Self-Guided Tour
Frederic Remington (1861-1901) was
already a successful illustrator and painter
when one friend commented that since he
had such an eye for composition and storytelling, he should try his hand at sculpting.
Remington, having never sculpted before,
agreed, and his first work astounded everyone. He was thrilled with his introduction
to bronze sculpture and wrote exuberantly
to a friend, , “- my water colors will fade
– but I am to endure in bronze...I am modeling – I find I do it well – I am doing a cow
boy on a bucking bronco and I am going to
rattle down through all the ages...” His very
first attempt at sculpting resulted in Bronco
Buster, arguably his most famous work.
Remington, like many artists, began
his sculpting career using the sand casting
method. Once introduced to the lost wax
method of casting, repopularized by Paul
Bartlett, he produced every statue by this
process and even recast some of his earlier
works. With The Rattlesnake Remington
moved the little wax snake several times
before the bronze was finally cast, delighting in the creative control, remarking,
“Great fun, isn’t it? You could work on
this for days, changing and rechanging as
you like—the only limit is your time and
patience.”
Inspired by cowboys and their Saturday
night escapades, Coming Through the Rye
was exhibited in plaster at the Louisiana
Purchase Exhibition in St. Louis in 1904,
where Charles Russell himself even got a
glimpse of the work.
I Want All the Reins in My Hand
Anna Hyatt Huntington
The R.W. Norton Art Gallery
4747 Creswell Ave
Shreveport, Louisiana 71106
318-865-4201
www.rwnaf.org
American History Gallery
Civil War Gallery
Paul Bartlett (1865-1925) ushered in the
Christopher Columbus
Paul Bartlett
The Puritan
A. Saint-Gaudens
1898
Abraham Lincoln
AA Weinman
Paul Revere
C.E. Dallin
1899
golden age of American sculpture when he
shared the lost wax method of casting with
his fellow artists in the late 19th century,
revealing how much more control wax
gave sculptors in the final form of their
work. Having lived and studied in Paris
for most of his life, Bartlett experienced
success on both sides of the Atlantic,
earning commissions from New York City
and earning many awards, including the
Legion of Honor in France.
The Last Drop, detail
Charles Schreyvogel
1903
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907),
an Irish immigrant who had later studied
in Paris, quickly established himself as the
premier monumental sculptor in America,
creating everything from elaborate tombs
to nationally famous pieces like the bronze
bas-relief he created for the Robert Gould
Shaw Memorial in Boston. In The Puritan, he celebrates an even earlier piece of
American history, the Puritans who settled
New England and introduced so many elements of what became American culture
and governance.
dolph Alexander Weinman (18701952) was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States when he was
ten. Later, Weinman studied at the Art Students League where he was instructed by
none other than Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
His most famous works include Destiny of
the Red Man (on display on our grounds),
the original Pennsylvania Station, and the
Mercury dime and the Walking Liberty
half dollar coins. He was also the artist
who designed the freizes on the Louisiana
State Capitol Building.
came America's premiere western artist
after the abrupt death of Frederic Remington in 1909. Known for his western
military scenes, Schreyvogel captured the
“strikingly American characteristics of
bravery under fire and personal sacrifice"
like no other artist had. One critic asserted
that he had endeared himself to “the old
frontier army...by depicting scenes of
frontier life and depicting it right...down to
the smallest buckle or button.” Because of
his meticulous painting technique, he left
behind fewer than one hundred paintings
and just a few bronzes after his death.
A lways appealing to Russell was the
Painting the Town
Charles Russell
Charles Russell Oil Gallery
Where the Best of
Riders Quit
Charles Russell
1800
A
C.E. Dallin (1861-1944) was born in
Charles Russell Oil Gallery
Charles Schreyvogel (1861-1912) be-
The Spirit of Winter
Charles Russell
1926
Springville, Utah. Over his lifetime, he
produced over 250 sculptures, including
his well-known Native American works,
such as Appeal to the Great Spirit, as well
as the Angel Moroni atop the steeple of
the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City.
Meat for Wild Men
In 1883, Dallin entered a competition to
Charles Russell
develop an equestrian statue of Paul Re1920
vere. No entries wereThe
selected,
but Dallin
Range
burial
persisted for 58 years in trying1968
to obtain
the commission, and in 1940 he finally
saw Paul Revere erected in Boston.
Charles Russell (1865-1926) ran away
from home at the age of 16 to become a
Montana cowboy, and received little, if
any, formal art training. Nonetheless, he
soon taught himself how to draw, paint,
and sculpt and became one of America's
most popular artists even to this day.
Please note the sense of balance with
Where the Best of Riders Quit. In order
to sculpt a mount with this much action,
bearing this much weight on so few points,
one must truly be a master sculptor.
Russell was a natural storyteller, both
in his works and around the campfire,
and The Spirit of Winter is based on a
Blackfoot fable. It is the tale of revenge
of a mistreated spirit who returns from
the grave with the cold North Wind and
savage wolves, representing sickness,
hunger and desolation for the tribe that
wronged him.
Russell spent a significant amount of
time among the Blackfoot tribe and was
invited to attend a buffalo hunt. The rumbling of the earth from 40,000 buffalo, the
last of the great herds, and all the excitement of 15,000 Indian braves in action
made this event one of Charles' favorite
to depict, as seen in his masterpiece Meat
for Wild Men. However, Charles was never
one to romanticize or forget the innocence
often lost in dramatic endeavors: please
note the young calf getting trampled.
It Ain't Lady's Job,
detail
Charles Russell
‘impulsive frolicking’ (read: trouble) indulged in by cowpunchers whenever they
had a chance to leave the range. These opportunities came in the fall, when a cattle
drive happened to get near a town with its
irresistible temptations of women, whiskey,
and gambling. Boredom could be dispelled
quickly, but only at the expense of some of
the more quiet and peaceful residents, such
as Chinese laundrymen, as shown here in
Painting the Town.
Russell's final work, It Ain't No Lady's
Job, was intended to be a Christmas gift for
his wife Nancy, and refers to the difficult
task of commanding a team of six horses.
The job would have required tremendous
upper body strength to control the horses,
large hands to handle the leather lines, and
significant lower body strength to operate the foot brake to keep control of the
stagecoach at a time when women were
wearing 40 pounds of petticoats. Though
unfinished, the bronze still convinces the
viewer it ain't no job for a lady.
Around the Bierstadt Gallery
Alexander Proctor (1862-1950) was born
Indian Warrior
Alexander Proctor
1898
in the wilds of Colorado in 1860, and was
formally trained in New York by Augustus
Saint Gaudens and in Paris with the prestigious Rineheart Scholarship. After winning
international awards and numerous commissions, he settled in Montana, where he
was adopted by the Northern Cheyennes,
who bestowed upon him the name "Little
Wolf." Indian Warrior launched Proctor's
career and earned him a medal at the Paris
Exhibition of 1900.
olon Borglum (1868-1922) worked as
a cowboy for 14 years of his life before
his brother convinced him to take up art.
Borglum later went on to study in Cincinnati and Paris, where he won awards at
the prestigious Paris Salon. This bronze
is particularly remarkable not only for its
dramatic narrative, but also for its sense of
balance: the horse with the rider is completely suspended. Just before he passed
away from wounds he received in WWI ,
Borglum founded the School of American
Sculpture.
S
Lassoin' Wild Horses
Solon Borglum
1906