Lorado Taft

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American sculptor Lorado Taft
American sculptor Lorado Taft

Lorado Zadoc Taft (April 29, 1860 – October 30, 1936) was an American sculptor, writer and educator, born in Elmwood, Illinois in 1860.

Contents

[edit] Early years and education

After being homeschooled by his parents, Taft earned his bachelor’s degree (1879) and master’s degree (1880) from the University of Illinois where his father was a professor of Geology. The same year he left for Paris to study sculpture. In Paris he attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he studied with Augustin Dumont, Jean Marie Bienaimé (Bonnassieux) and Jules Thomas. Upon returning to the United States in 1886 he settled in Chicago (although he continued to have a connection to the University of Illinois in Urbana for most of the rest of his life) and begun teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago, a post he was to remain at until 1929.

In 1892, while the art community of Chicago was all in a twitter about preparing for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 head architect Daniel Burnham expressed concern to Taft that the sculptural adornments to the buildings might not be finished on time. Taft asked if he could employ some of his female students as assistants (women as sculptors were not an accepted reality at that time) for the Horticultural Building, Burnham responded with the classic reply, ‘Hire anyone, even white rabbits if they’ll do the work." From that arose a group of talented women sculptors who were to retain the name, "the White Rabbits." These included Enid Yandell, Carol Brooks MacNeil, Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Janet Scudder, and Julia Bracken. Later another former student, Francis Loring, noted that Taft used his students’ talents to further his own career, a not uncommon observation by students regarding their teachers. In general, history has given Taft credit for helping to advance the status of women as sculptors.

In 1898, he was a founding member of the Eagle's Nest Art Colony.

Alma Mater at Urbana
Alma Mater at Urbana

[edit] Writings and later years

In 1903 Taft published The History of American Sculpture, the first survey of the subject and a work that Taft is better known for (except perhaps in Chicago) than his many sculptures. His revised version, published in 1925, was to remain the standard reference on the subject until Wayne Craven published "Sculpture in America" in 1968.

As he grew older his eloquent speaking skills and compelling writing led Taft, along with Frederick Ruckstull to the forefront of sculpture’s conservative ranks, where he often served as a spokesperson against the modern and abstract tendencies that developed in sculpture during his lifetime. Taft's frequent lecture tours for the Chautauqua also gave him a certain measure of celebrity.

In 1921 Taft published Modern Tendencies in Sculpture, a compilation of his Scammon Lectures at the Art Institute of Chicago. The book continues to be not only an excellent survey of American sculpture in the early years of the 20th century but still provides one of the best (in English) overviews of the European sculpture scene at that time.

Lorado Taft was a member of the National Sculpture Society and exhibited at both their 1923 and 1929 shows. Today Taft is best remembered for his various fountains.

A residence hall at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is named in Lorado Taft's honor.

[edit] Selected works

The Soldiers' Monument, Oregon, Illinois.
The Soldiers' Monument, Oregon, Illinois.

[edit] Fountain of Time

After more than a dozen years of work Taft's Fountain of Time was unveiled at the west end of Chicago's Midway Plaisance in 1922. Based on poet Austin Dobson's lines: "Time goes, you say? Ah no, Alas, time stays, we go." the fountain shows a cloaked figure of time observing the stream of humanity flowing past.

[edit] Pioneer & Patriot Groups for the Louisiana State Capitol Building

The last major commission that Taft was to complete in his life was two groups for the front entrance to the Louisiana State Capitol Building, dedicated in 1932.

[edit] Sources

  • Bach, Ira and Mary Lackritz Gray, Chicago’s Public Sculpture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1983
  • Barnard, Harry, This Great Triumvirate of Patriots – The inspiring Story behind Lorado Taft’s Chicago Monument to George Washington, Robert Morris and Haym Solomon, Follett Publishing, Chicago Illinois 1971
  • Contemporary American Sculpture, The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, San Francisco, The National Sculpture Society 1929
  • Craven, Wayne, Sculpture in America, Thomas Y. Crowell Co, NY, NY 1968
  • Exhibition of American Sculpture Catalogue, 156th Street of Broadway New York, The National Sculpture Society 1923
  • Garvey, Timothy J., Public Sculptor – Lorado Taft and the Beautification of Chicago, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois 1988
  • Goode, James M. The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington D.C. 1974
  • Kubly, Vincent, The Louisiana Capitol-Its Art and Architecture, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna 1977
  • Kvaran,, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture of America, unpublished manuscript
  • Lanctot, Barbara, A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery, Chicago Architecture Foundation, Chicago, IL 1988
  • Opitz, Glenn B, Editor, Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie NY, 1986
  • Rubenstein, Charlotte Streifer, American Women Sculptors, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston 1990
  • Scheinman, Muriel, A Guide to the Art of the University of Illinois, University of Illinois Press, Urbana 1995
  • Taft, Lorado, History of American Sculpture, The MacMillan Company, NY, NY 1925
  • Taft, Lorado, Modern Tendencies in Sculpture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1921
  • Weller, Allen Stuart, Lorado in Paris – the Letters of Lorado Taft 1880 – 1885, University of Illinois Press, Urbana Illinois 1985

[edit] External links