John J. Boyle was born at Philadelphia in 1853. His father, a stone cutter, who met his death through an accident, left his family in needy circumstances, and the son when only ten years of age was obliged to provide for himself. He early aspired to become a machinist, but was induced to learn stone-cutting, in which humble occupation was developed his natural ability for carving, modelling, and sculpture. From the income of his trade in summer he was enabled during the winter to attend drawing-schools and to join classes in anatomy, where he learned the first principles of his art. In 1877 he went to Paris, and was at once admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 188o he received the commis sion to execute for Lincoln Park, Chicago, the bronze group of Indians, which was completed in 1883. Through this composition he secured a commission from the Fairmount Park Art Association, Philadelphia, to execute from a design submitted a group in bronze entitled An Indian Woman defending her Children from the Attack of an Eagle. The design was afterward changed by substituting a bear for the eagle, and the work was then named the Stone Age in North America (pl. 49, jig. The statue was modelled and cast in Paris. Mr. Boyle has succeeded admirably in giving an impressive translation of his ideal. The com position is marked by freshness and originality, while the technique of the entire work is a triumph of artistic excellence.
Louis T. Rebisso, professor of sculpture in the Cincinnati School of Design, was born at Genoa, Italy, in 1837. When twelve years of age lie entered the Accademia delle Belle Arte of his native city, where he spent eight years in study. He was always an enthusiast for liberty, and on the 29th of June, 1857, with fifty comrades, under the celebrated Mazzini, he assisted in capturing Fort Diamond, Genoa, which the young revolu tionists were unable to hold. Escape or death being the alternative, young Rebisso fled to America and took up his abode in Boston, where he worked two years in a marble-yard; he then went to Richmond, Virginia, where he remained but a short time. He has been located in Cincinnati for twenty-seven years. He has executed a number of busts of prominent citizens of Ohio, but is chiefly known to the art-world through his bronze equestrian statue of General J. B. McPherson in McPherson Square, Washington, D. C., and the standing figure of the same general at Clyde, Ohio. Mr. Rebisso has secured the commission for General Grant's equestrian statue which will be located in Lincoln Park, Chicago, and more recently for a bronze equestrian statue of General Harrison (fig. 4) for the city of Cincinnati.
John of the latest and most promising aspirants to fame that have yet appeared among American sculptors is John Donoghue of Chicago. Until within a few years a clerk in an office, he threw up his position and went to Paris. Since his return he has rapidly drawn attention to his talents by a number of very creditable compositions, of (vhich the highly ideal statue called Saphokies (p1. 4S, is perhaps the
ino,t remarkable; it combines elegance and beauty, animation, and a reticence which conies of conscious reserved power.
Fazcard Kemeys, sculptor of animals, born at Savannah, Georgia, in 1s43, has had his home for the most of his life in New York City and vicinity. From childhood he has been an ardent lover of Nature, and early acquired a fondness for adventure. For years he journeyed and hunted on the Plains and among the mountains of the West, studying the special branch of his profession in the face of many difficulties and (Lingers. From the sections visited he has selected for his subjects the Indians and wild animals, such as buffaloes and prairie-wolves, to the modelling of which lie has particularly devoted himself. In 1878 his L'ison and II olzes was exhibited in the Paris Salon. His a colossal bronze, is in Central Park, New York City. Probably his most important work is the Eikkling Panther and Deer. We give on I'late 49 (ji:J. 3) his Goal.
Rionmer of Boston (1821-1879), a professor of art-anatomy, made some ambitions efforts in the same direction, which, owing to his lack of a cultivated perception of the limitations of the art, were interest ing as anatomical studies rather than as artistic conceptions.
11 'omen of our most noted sculptors belong to the fair sex—a singular circumstance, if one considers that in all the ages past so few women have selected an art which involves so many mechani cal details. Harriet Hosmer (born in 1831) became famous for her statues of Zi nobia and the Sleeping Faun, works of some merit, allied, however, in character to the works of Story. Anne Whitney has achieved eminence for her clever portrait-statues, of which one, the portrait of Winthrop, is in one of the public squares of Boston. Mrs. James E. Freeman (born in 1836), Emma Stebbins, and Edmonia Lewis deserve a word of commen dation for enthusiastic effort, if not for achievement entirely successful.
Cincinnati considerable attention has been given to wood-carving. There is a distinct school of artists in that city, mostly ladies, who cultivate this art with much enthusiasm, excellent technical dexterity, and an admirable degree of artistic merit.
concluding this survey of the rise and progress of the art of sculpture in the United States, we find that its achievements have not thus far been of much moment or permanent value ; it has been pass ing through the period of instruction, and its greatest triumphs are yet to come; but the signs are accumulating that, proceeding along the normal lines of intellectual development, our sculptors are destined at no distant period to produce results rivalling those of modern Europe. More than that it is yet too early to foretell. But the genius of this great nation, hitherto devoting its energies chiefly to the practical problems under lying the establishment of a stable government, is at last awakening to an appreciation of the arts of peace and prosperity.