Name/Title
Booklet, The Art of Lorado Taft, A Mid-Western SculptorDescription
The Art of Lorado Taft. Jim Laird purchased this on eBay. Apparently it was removed from a larger publication. The page numbering starts with 19 and runs to 34. Lorado Taft is the sculptor that did "The Recording Angel." "The Recording Angel" is located in Forest Mound Cemetery in Waupun, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Clarence Addison Shaler purchased the statue and placed in on his wife's, Blanche Bancroft Shaler grave in September of 1925. "The Recording Angel" was the first statue that Mr. Shaler purchased for Waupun.
A MID-WESTERN SCULPTOR
THE ART OF LORADO TAFT
HIS STUDIES, HIS SPIRIT, HIS PROCESSES, HIS ACCOMPLISHED WORK - WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT BY HAMLIN GARLAND, AND PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE MIDWAY STUDIOS, CHICAGO
Caption under photo: [LORADO TAFT IN HIS STUDIO GROUNDS, MIDWAY PLAISANCE, CHICAGO Mr. Taft is shown here standing in front of a large plaster cast of one of the group sections of his great composition "The Fountain of Time," which now tands (sp) at the west end of the Midway, Chicago]
MR. TAFT, besides being a sculptor of national distinction and world-wide fame, is an inspired figure in the field of art education, and a great citizen. He is not only a master of sculptural art, but a supremely successful teacher and demonstrator of sculptural processes on the public platform - and he has been untiringly enthusiastic in his application of art to civic adornment and to social betterment
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THE ART OF LORADO TAFT
BY HAMLIN GARLAND
A SCULPTOR of high skill and serious intent, Lorado Taft is more than that. He is fundamentally a teacher, an evangelist who has felt it his duty to bring to the people of the Middle West, and especially to Chicago, a wider knowledge of art and a keener appreciation of what was being done by the Eastern men as well as the great masters of Europe.
Although born in Elmwood, Illinois, his ancestral strain is New England on both sides of the house. His mother was a Foster of Massachusetts, and his father one of the Tafts of New Hampshire - but neither of the families, so far as I know, had been given to the practice of any form of art, and there is no answer to the question, "Why should this son of a New England preacher, turned professor, and of a sweet and gentle New England pioneer wife, in an Illinois town, have become a devotee of art and later a distinguished sculptor?"
In curious, fateful fashion young Lorado Taft became convinced at fourteen years of age that he should go to Paris and study sculpture; and this he did a few years later, living, as most of his fellow students did at that time, on a very meager allowance from home. He spent four or five years in this study, and then came to Chicago to establish himself - and when I came to know him he was considered by his fellows to be exceedingly well grounded in his art and of unusual skill as a craftsman. He was making a living partly by his art, partly by speaking and writing on esthetic subjects.
As time went by, his work as a sculptor augmented, but continued to be only a part of his activity. He became a very skilful (sp) and attractive lecturer at the Art Institute and, by way of a kind of mingled entertainment and criticism, or exposition, of the art of sculpture, united with the actual modeling before the audience, he took the platform and succeeded in bringing to thousands of towns in the Middle West some small part of his own judgment and enthusiasm in matters relating to painting, sculpture, and architecture.
He soon became one of the best known men of the Middle West. By actual count he has given nearly four thousand lectures; and he has with equal skill used his pen in articles for the daily papers and the magazines. Furthermore, he has written the most complete and authoritative book
on American sculpture.
Some fifteen or sixteen years ago he became convinced that it was a mistake to maintain his studio in the tumult of Chicago, and upon being offered the rent of a stable in the rear of a Midway Chapter House belonging to the University of Chicago, he took a lease upon this building and moved all of his activities as a sculptor and lecturer to this quiet spot. Almost immediately he began to expand; year by year he built new studios for himself and studios for his friends and pupils, until at last it became a colony of workers in sculpture. Nothing else just like it exists in this country. It is due entirely to Taft's generosity and (some of us say) his kindly but
Caption under picture: [HEAD OF "LAKE ONTARIO" Detail from the "Fountain of the Great Lakes." Ontario, crouching low (see general view of fountain, page 28), stretches forth her arm and directs the flood of waters of the Five Lakes down the St. Lawrence River. Her glance follows her arm]
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Caption under picture: [A SECTION OF "THE FOUNTAIN OF TIME" The photograph shows in detail the taking of plaster molds from the full - sized model. The sculptor himself, in smock, stands
near the lower left-hand corner. A few of his many helpers - varied in nationality and talent - demonstrate the practical processes by which a work of high idealism is finally advanced to full realization]
unwarranted aid to struggling young artists.
He argues, however, that, as one is called upon to build great groups of outdoor sculpture, it is necessary to have a large studio and to maintain a force of assistants in order that certain results may be achieved within his lifetime. In this there is logic, but some of us still think that his humanitarian overhead charges are too great.
In these studios, and by means of his young assistants, he has built some of the most significant groups of statuary in America. Among the first of these is one called "The Great Lakes," a group of beautiful female figures typifying the five great lakes of inland America. In this studio also he conceived and worked out to a triumphant finish "The Fountain of Time," which was last year put into concrete by the South Park commissioners, and stands just at the west end of the Midway at Washington Park. This is one of the most colossal undertakings in the history of American sculpture. I do not presume to pass upon its technical qualities, but I am fitted to speak of the persistence, the tact, and the administrative skill which he displayed during the eleven years of its construction. I saw it grow "from a minute model in clay to this magnificent final monument."
Taft's generosity and civic enthusiasm can be made plain by stating some of the facts with regard to his contributions. He gave all the work and a large part of the cost of the colossal figure of " Blackhawk" which stands on a Rock River bluff just south of Eagles' Nest Camp; and recently he has taken a very active interest in the plan to preserve the beautiful building in Jackson Park which was the Art Museum in 1893, and which was subsequently occupied by the Field Columbian Museum. This building, after the Field Columbian collection was withdrawn to its new building in Grant Park, was allowed to fall into decay, and the park commissioners were about to destroy it when a group of enthusiasts headed by Taft started a campaign to have it preserved for
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Caption under picture: [© international Film Service ASSEMBLING THE PLASTER CASTS FOR "THE FOUNTAIN OF TIME" The process goes on in the open air - the work having outgrown the capacity of any studio. The figure on horseback, typifying Command in War, is the center of the entire composition. A few of the soldiers that give military operations their force are
seen behind the commander, and alongside the horse is a group of war's victims. The sculptor, directing like another commander, stands on the stepladder]
all time, and to be used as some sort of art museum or civic center, or both. It is one of the most beautiful buildings in America, and should not pass away.
I mention these things in order that the character of Lorado Taft may be made more manifest. He is a noble citizen as well as a great sculptor, an inspirational teacher as well as a careful student of painting and of sculpture. He is one of the few artists who can write fluently, wittily, and with precision; and as an orator he is able to present his thought with dignity, authority, and charm.
He lives very simply not far from his studio, and while he has earned a great deal of money, he has never used it for any personal luxury. It has all gone back into his art, into the extension of his studio plant, and in aid of young talent. In fact, some of us feel that too much of his energy has gone into plans for making life easier for those whose talent he recognizes. Some of his friends believe it would be better for his disciples if they were forced to struggle a little harder - and that to be a little less dependent upon their patron would be salutary. However, Lorado Taft has built for himself a throne in the heart of the West, a position which no other Western man of art or of letters can surpass. He has written himself into the esthetic history of the Middle West in such wise that he can never be overlooked by any historian of the future.
His "Fountain of Time" is but a fragment of his comprehensive plan for the decoration
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Caption under picture: [Copyright Clara E. Lippen DETAIL FROM "THE FOUNTAIN OF TIME" The pair of colossal figures - two in a procession of many - indicate in some measure the rhythmical and mystical sweep of the whole processional movement
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Caption under the picture: ["THE FOUNTAIN OF CREATION" Project for a companion piece to "The Fountain of Time," which it is designed to face, a mile away, at the eastern end of the Midway. The stones thrown over their shoulders by Deucalion and Pyrrha, as a means of repeopling the world after the flood are seen taking shape as human creatures - in the foreground, inert clods; on the sides, half - awakened strugglers; at the top, fully awakened men and women]
of the Midway, a plan which presupposes straight and formal canal running through the existing depressions of this broad avenue. This canal is to be spanned by three bridges of monumental design, dedicated to the three fundamental ideals of the race. They are to be called respectively, " The Bridge of the Sciences," " The Bridge of the Arts," and "The Bridge of Religions." Along the roadways upon either side of the canal he would place statues of the world's greatest idealists, ranged at half - block intervals and treated as architectural notes which would connect the bridges with the fountains and unite the various features of the decorative scheme.
At the west end of the Midway and heading the canal already rises "The Fountain of Time." For the eastern end Taft has designed " The Fountain of Creation," or Evolution.
This "Fountain of Creation" upon which he is at work will face the Midway, just west of the Illinois Central viaduct. Its motif is the classic myth of Deucalion, the Noah of Greek legend. Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, being the only mortals saved by Zeus after the nine days' flood, stepped out from their frail boat on the top of Mount Parnassus, and consulted an oracle as to the best way of restoring the human race. They were told to cover their heads and throw the bones of their mother behind them. Pyrrha divined that these bones were the stones of Mother Earth.
The monument will show us the moment when these stones cast from the Titans' hands are changing into men and women. The composition begins with creatures half - formed, vague, prostrate, blindly emerging from the shapeless rock; continues at higher level with figures fully developed and almost erect, but still groping in darkness - struggling, wondering, and wandering, until its climax is reached with an elevated group of human forms, complete and glorious, saluting the dawn.
"The Fountain of Time" shows the human procession passing in review before the stern, immovable figure of Time. Father Time is represented by a rugged, mysterious shape apparently reviewing a throng of hastening people combined in a series of waves. A warrior on horseback, flanked by banners and dancing figures, forms the center of the composition, which fades off at one end into creeping infancy and, at the other end, into the bent and withered figures of old age.
While the tragic note is not lacking, there is a suggestion of joyous onward movement in this procession, and of the splendor and
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pageantry with which life is accompanied since that first great day of creation which the other fountain celebrates.
Before he made the first sketch for the "Fountain of Time," Mr. Taft wrote the following note:
"Time goes, you say? Ah, no. Alas, time stays: we go.
"The words brought before me a picture which fancy speedily transformed into a colossal work of sculpture. I saw the mighty crag - like figure of Time, mantled like one of Sargent's prophets, leaning upon his staff, his chin upon his hand, and watching with cynical, inscrutable gaze the endless march of humanity - a majestic relief of marble I saw it, swinging in a wide circle around the form of the lone sentinel and made up of the shapes of hurrying men and women and children in endless procession, ever impelled by the winds of destiny in the inexorable lockstep of the ages. Theirs the 'fateful forward movement' which has not ceased since time began. But in that crowded concourse how few detach themselves from the grayness of the dusky caravan; how few there are who even lift their heads! Here an overtaxed body falls - and a place is vacant for a moment; there a strong man turns to the silent, shrouded reviewer and with lifted arms utters the cry of the old - time gladiators: 'Hail Caesar, we who go to our death salute thee' - and presses forward."
Caption under picture: ["THE BLIND" A group (plaster) based on Maeterlinck's one-act play, "Les Aveugles" ("The Blind"). All these adults are astray in a dark forest, and the only sight is with a child too young to speak. The play itself was performed by Mr. Taft and his friends at the
Artists' Colony, on the Rock River, Illinois, during the creation of this group]
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Caption under pictures on pages 27 and 27: [Stalwart young manhood, intent but unintimidated,
advances toward life and into experiences
A front view of the fountain in its entirety. Mankind rises from the Unknown; enjoys, in successive waves, a brief hour of pleasure, suffering, or power; and descends into the Unknown once more. Time, static and emotionless, watches it all
From a female group - woman's mournful comment on a world in which chance and violence play so strong a part
A back view. Life in all its relation and vicissitudes. The meditative figure with hands clasped behind is that of the sculptor himself
A back view. The domestic relations are strongly indicated at the left and the disturbing episodes of war toward the right center
The waves of life sweep all toward death. Two end figures in strong contrast - an aged man welcomes the end as a release, and a younger one goes out in rebellion and despair
"THE FOUNTAIN OF TIME" — A Magnificent Work Placed in Washington Park, Chicago, at the West End of the Midway Plaisance
This vast achievement, which occupied the artist nearly twelve years, and which comprises nearly a hundred figures, is one of the largest and most significant works of sculpture yet produced in the United States. Passing processionally before the isolated figure of "Father Time," it runs the whole gamut of human life and human experience from infancy to old age
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Caption under picture: ["THE FOUNTAIN OF THE GREAT LAKES" This adjoins the south front of the Art Institute, Chicago. "Superior" and "Michigan" pour their waters into the shell of
"Huron," and "Erie" passes them on to "Ontario," who speeds them oceanward]
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Caption under picture: ["BLACKHAWK" This figure stands on a high bluff overlooking the Rock River, in Illinois, and is visible for many miles up - stream and down. It commemorates the native leader in the war of 1832, which drove the Indians from this valley]
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Caption under picture: ["SOLITUDE OF THE SOUL" This group, standing in the Art Institute, Chicago, depicts the isolation in which every human creature, despite whatever intimacy of relationships, must essentially dwell. Four figures - two men and two women - closely interrelated, yet, in the end, each one alone]
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Caption under picture: [COLUMBUS MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN This fine composition stands in the large plaza before the Union Station, Washington, D. C.]
Caption under picture: [SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, OREGON, ILLINOIS This commemoration work, in stone and bronze, stands in the public square of Oregon, a few miles from Mr. Taft's summer
residence. It represents, in some measure, a gift to the community with which he has been associated for the past twenty-five years]
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Caption under picture: [THATCHER FOUNTAIN, DENVER, COLORADO The three groups surrounding the central figure of the State represent Loyalty, Love, and Learning. The jets of water rising and falling as will or circumstance directs, provide constantly varying forms]
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Caption under picture: ["LOYALTY" Detail of the Thatcher Fountain, Denver. When the Warrior lays aside his helm, Woman, with the palm of Victory, rewards work well and faithfully done]
Caption under picture: ["LEARNING" Detail of the Thatcher Fountain, Denver. The earnest and absorbed student hangs on the lips of Alma Mater, while a young secretary takes down the notes that the intent listener fails to secure]
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Caption under picture: ["ORPHEUS" This figure a life - size bronze, was presented to Mr. Thomas A. Edison by friends on the occasion of his seventy - fifth birthday. The musician, whose tones could soothe the wild beasts, is seen discarding the ancient conventional lyre for the modern
phonograph disk]
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Physical Description: Series of pages telling about Lorado Taft and his works.Acquisition
Accession
2008.0001Source or Donor
James & Harriet LairdAcquisition Method
Bequest,Collected by
