AMERICAN SCULPTURE, Historical Subjects in. American art in the Colonial and Revolutionary periods was confined chiefly to portrait painting. At the beginning of the 19th century there was to all practical purposes no such thing as an art of sculpture in the United States. Mural painting, as a branch of art adapted especially for depicting historical subjects, was still farther away in the future. The country was not ready for the development of art along the lines of history and com memoration of historical characters. It was not until the latter half of the 19th century that there began to be real activity on such lines.
At first, when statues or busts of pioneers and patriots began to be in demand for public institutions or places, notably the national cap itol at Washington, it was customary to go abroad to find some artist, possibly a French man or Englishman, capable of doing the work. And when there began to be Americans of real talent who devoted themselves to sculpture they at first were chiefly absorbed in producing gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome, more or less poor imitations of those of classic times, rather than in creating things having to do with their own country and its annals and customs. It is chiefly in the past 25 or 30 years that American sculptors have found their main in spiration in national subjects and have devoted themselves so largely to themes associated more or less directly with American history.
A great influence upon this phase of Ameri can art has been exercised by the wars of the nation, chiefly the Revolution and the Civil War, while the recent centenary of the War of 1812 and the close of a century of peace with Great Britain witnessed the dedication of a strikingly large number of works of art having to do with this commemoration and furnishing proof of the good effect of such celebrations and the incidents recalled upon contemporary art.
Another influence which should be noted is that of the great international expositions of the last quarter century. Most of them had some historical motives which have been ex pressed in the architectural schemes and in the decorative features, and the latter, while usually temporary, have exerted a powerful and far reaching force, affecting public taste in many ways and often leading to more permanent decorations of similar type in connection with public places and institutions. Hence there has been, partly as a result of the influence emanating from these expositions, a marked in crease in the application of the art of the sculptor to the embellishment of buildings like capitols, court-houses, libraries and even busi ness structures of a semi-public character. There have arisen within this period the Con gressional Library at Washington, one of the most interesting and educational buildings in the world, in its artistic features, so largely associated with historical characters or sub jects; the Pennsylvania State capitol at Harris burg, with its sculptures by George Grey Bar nard, historic or symbolic of national types; the Court-house at Baltimore, with its many excellent decorations; the Appellate Court Building in New York, with its sculptures typ ical of law and government; the New York Custom House, with its façade figures by Daniel Chester French and others; the State capitols of Wisconsin and Iowa, with their splendid adornments typical of the spirit of the West ; the Jefferson Memorial Building at Saint Louis, an outcome of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, with its imposing group by the late Karl Bitter showing Marbois,. Liv
ingston and Monroe signing the Louisiana Purchase Treaty; and the statue, also by Bit ter, of Thomas Jefferson, during whose ad ministration this momentous purchase was negotiated; and the Cleveland Court-house, with its historical sculpture, including Chief Justice Marshall by Herbert Adams.
The artistic merits of the creations of later years in this field are evident from a compari son between them and earlier efforts of similar type. When the Virginia assembly wished to have a statue of Washington erected at the State capitol there was apparently no Ameri can sculptor equal to the task, and Jean An toine Houdon (q.v.), the French sculptor, was engaged to model one. He came to this country in 1785 for the purpose, and the statue, the original of which is now in the capitol at Richmond, was dedicated in 1788. Another French sculptor, David d'Angers, executed the first statue which was made of Jefferson. By 1832, when the centenary of the birth of Wash ington was observed, Horatio Greenough, Thomas Crawford and Henry Kirke Brown' were coming upon the scene. Greenough was then but 27 and studying in Florence, Italy, but Congress commissioned him to execute a statue of Washington, stipulating that it should not be equestrian and that the countenance should correspond to that of the Houdon Washington. Greenough devoted the greater part of eight years to his commission and re ceived $20,000 for his work, quite a sum in those days. The statue, which is of Carrara marble, was brought from Italy in a special ship. It represents the First President in bare legs and a Roman toga, which has slipped from his shoulders, lifting a finger of warning and advice to the nation. It is in the nature of a charac terization of him as an Olympian Zeus. It was recently removed from the square in front of the capitol to the Smithsonian Institution. There has been much controversy over this figure and no little ridicule has been cast upon it. Considering the time and circumstances it was no doubt a work of merit but does not, in spite of the classic atmosphere with which it is supposed to be invested, give us that impres sion of dignity and intellectual force in the Father of his Country which we associate, for instance, with John 9. A. Ward's fine figure of the same statesman in front of the Sub-Treas ury in Wall Street, New York, or the splendid equestrian statue by Daniel Chester French in Paris, France, or Henry Kirke Brown's eques trian statue in Union Square, New York. The latter may be classed among the earlier ex amples of American historical sculpture, but holds its own in spite of the onward march of artistic standards. Another historical work, also by Brown, is the spirited statue of Gen. Winfield Scott in Scott Circle, Washington, D. C. Launt Thompson was another of the early American sculptors who did meritorious historical work. His statue of General Scott at the Soldiers' Home, Washington, is an ex ample. Thomas Ball was another. His eques trian statue of Washington is in Boston Com mon. Clark Mills executed equestrian statues of Andrew Jackson and George Washington which are famous. The national capital has the original of his Jackson and New Orleans a replica.