Art: Familiar Figures

Daniel Chester French was only 24 when he finished his first major sculpture, the bronze Minute Man at Concord. Men of letters, such as Longfellow and Emerson, beamed encouragingly on his work. President Grant and most of his cabinet came on for the unveiling, which moved French’s proud but cautious father to observe: “This is Fame, Dan. Make the most of it, for you don’t know how long it will last.”

It lasted French’s lifetime, and beyond. His smooth blend of realism with classical overtones has made his work grow steadily in popularity if not in critical reputation. During World War II, the Minute Man adorned millions of U.S. stamps and war bond posters. Later French sculptures, like the John Harvard who sits pondering his philanthropy in Harvard Yard and the Lincoln of Washington’s Lincoln Memorial, had long since become as familiar to Americans’ as Longfellow’s Hiawatha.

Plaster miniatures of these and lesser works went on exhibition in the Pittsfield (Mass.) Berkshire Museum last week, to celebrate the centenary of French’s birth. His daughter, Margaret French Cresson (who once wrote a biography of her father—TIME, June 16, 1947), had selected and arranged the show. Among its carved mementos she included some more personal ones: French’s mallets and chisels, cuff links, and a golden lock of hair clipped when he was three. Also on show was a life cast of French’s sinewy hand, which turned out to be precisely like that of the Lincoln in Washington.