James Earle Fraser (sculptor)
James Earle Fraser (born November 4, 1876 in Winona , Minnesota , † October 11, 1953 in Westport , Connecticut ) was an American sculptor and medalist .
Live and act
James Earle Fraser was born on November 4, 1876 in the small town of Winona, Minnesota, USA, to Thomas Fraser, an engineer who worked for various railroad companies. A few months before his birth, his father and other men were sent out to collect the remains of the 7th Cavalry Regiment , which was defeated on June 25 and 26, 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn . James Earle Fraser spent his earliest childhood with his family on the frontier , the borderland to the Native Americans , and thus had early contact with Indian culture, which he incorporated into much of his work in later years. As a child, when his family lived near Mitchell , South Dakota , Fraser began sculpting when he made figures from limestone obtained from his nearby quarry. From 1890 he attended The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and then studied at the end of the 19th century at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris and the Académie Julian in Paris . Early in his career he assisted the native Germans Richard Bock and the native Irish Augustus Saint-Gaudens , before leading his own studio from the year 1902nd A few years later (from 1906) he taught at the Art Students League of New York in New York City and subsequently also became its director.
The Buffalo Nickel or Indian Head Nickel
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Early Fraser works were exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Fraser then developed into one of the most prominent American sculptors of the first half of the 20th century. In 1911, the Taft government decided to replace the nickel with the head of Liberty , the goddess of freedom, designed by Charles E. Barber and put into circulation in 1883 , with a newer design. For this reason, Fraser approached those responsible at the United States Treasury Department with design suggestions . After he was able to convince the local people, Fraser was commissioned by those responsible for a redesign of the 5-cent piece. For the obverse of the coin, Fraser had chosen the profile of an Indian head looking to the right and an American bison facing to the left for the reverse . Various Indians are said to have served as a model for Fraser; It is not known exactly who this was, as, among others, Fraser himself made various statements and told different stories after the design of the coin in the last 40 years of his life. In December 1913 he wrote that he had made several portraits of Indians and that the chiefs Iron Tail and Two Moons , as well as one or two other Indians, were serving as models, but that he had no intention of drawing a portrait towards the coin anyway bring, just a certain type. As early as January 13, 1912, Franklin MacVeagh , the then finance minister, gave the draft preliminary approval. By the end of June 1912, Fraser had completed the model of the final design. The specifications of the new coin were then passed on to various agencies, including the Hobbs Manufacturing Company , a manufacturer of vending machines. However, after a personal meeting with Fraser in early November 1912, those in charge of the company feared that the new coins might block their machines.
Fraser gave in to pressure from the company and prepared a slightly revised version of the coin, which in turn was rejected by the Treasury Secretary on the grounds that the change affected the design. On December 13, 1912, George E. Roberts , director of the United States Mint , warned his staff not to take any steps to prepare the five-cent coinage for 1913 until the new designs were ready, and then on the same day Production with the Liberty head design was discontinued. To please the Hobbs Manufacturing Company , which wrote an extensive list of the changes requested to the coin, Fraser's design was modified slightly. In a letter dated February 15, 1913, less than three weeks before he had to resign due to the introduction of the Wilson government , McVeagh announced that no other vending machine manufacturer had complained about the new design, whereupon he immediately started production of the new 5-cent piece . The coin, known colloquially as Buffalo Nickel or Indian Head Nickel , was then issued until 1938, before it was replaced by the so-called Jefferson Nickel , based on a design by Felix Schlag . Fraser's design is still receiving recognition today, more than 100 years after its publication, and is used, among other things, to mint commemorative coins or the American Buffalo , a 24-carat investment gold coin minted since 2006 .
End of the Trail and other important works
After Fraser had modeled the motif for the first time in 1893 and was awarded a prize including prize money at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris, he succeeded in creating a large plaster version of the work for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, where it was awarded gold, among other things, to greater prominence. Soon after, prints and photos of the statue began to be circulated, adding to the popularity of End of the Trail . When the exhibition ended, bronze was not available for casting statues due to World War I , so the plaster sculpture was thrown into a mud pit in Marina Park , near the exhibition site. From 1918 Fraser finally sold two large bronze copies of the motif; In 1919, the plaster version was also rescued from the mud pit and placed in Mooney Grove Park , near Visalia , California . There it was in Mooney Grove Park in the open air, and over the years has been exposed to the weather conditions, it came in 1968 to acquire the plaster sculpture by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City in the State of Oklahoma . Those responsible for the museum had the sculpture restored and exhibited it in the entrance area of the museum, where it can still be seen today (as of 2018). At the previous exhibition site in Mooney Grove Park, a bronze replica was set up in the place where the plaster sculpture once stood. The original bronze replica of the statue now stands in Shaler Park in Waupun , Wisconsin . The inventor and sculptor Clarence Addison Shaler bought it in 1926 and donated it to the city of Waupun in a ceremony on July 23, 1929. On August 29, 1980, the Waupun statue was added to the National Register of Historic Places .
Other important works by Fraser include the sculptures The Authority of Law and The Contemplation of Justice in front of the United States Supreme Court building , the south gable and the sculptures in front of the National Archives building, built between 1933 and 1935 according to plans by John Russell Pope , the sculptures by Alexander Hamilton and Alber Gallatin in front of the United States Treasury building, or the Second Division Monument , which Fraser designed in collaboration with the company of the aforementioned architect John Russell Pope. His other commissioned work includes various coins and medals, such as the World War I Victory Medal or the Navy Cross , both of which were officially introduced in 1919.
Other outstanding sculptures by Fraser include The Arts of Peace from the ensemble The Arts of War and The Arts of Peace , with sculptor Leo Friedlander creating the counterpart The Arts of War . The bronze and fire-gilded statues at Lincoln Memorial Circle in West Potomac Park , a park in Washington, DC , belong to the ensemble of the East and West Potomac Parks Historic District and as such have been on the National Register of Historic Places since November 30, 1973. The East and West Potomac Parks Historic District also includes the John Ericsson National Memorial , which was created decades earlier in collaboration between James Earle Fraser and the architect Albert Randolph Ross . Numerous other works by Fraser are also listed in the National Register of Historic Places today, either as a single object or as part of an ensemble.
During his lifetime, Fraser was a member of the National Academy of Design , the National Sculpture Society , and the Architectural League of New York . He also received numerous awards and honors, including an election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1915 or a gold medal from the Architectural League in 1925. From 1920 to 1925 he served on the United States Commission of Fine Arts .
On October 11, 1953, Fraser died at the age of 76 in the city of Westport in the US state of Connecticut and was buried at Willowbrook Cemetery there . His wife Laura Gardin Fraser , also a sculptor, to whom he had been married since 1913, survived him by almost 13 years and died on August 13, 1966 at the age of 76. The couple's estate is today (as of 2018) at the Special Collections Research Center of the Syracuse University Library , the Archives of American Art operated by the Smithonian Institution , and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Gallery (selection)
John Ericsson National Memorial (1916)
Alexander Hamilton (1923)
The Contemplation of Justice (1935)
The Authority of Law (1935)
Albert Gallatin (1941/47)
The Arts of Peace (Official unveiled: 1951)
Web links
- James Earle Fraser in the database of Find a Grave (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ End of the Trail: Introduction ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the official website of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum , accessed January 29, 2019
- ↑ a b End of the Trail - Waupun, Wisconsin - National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form , accessed January 29, 2019
- ↑ End of the Trail sculpture on the Waupun info page, accessed on January 29, 2019
- ^ A b East and West Potomac Parks Historic District - Washington, DC - National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form , accessed January 29, 2019
- ↑ Members: James Earle Fraser. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 29, 2019 .
- ↑ James Earle and Laura Gardin Fraser Papers - An inventory of their papers at Syracuse University , accessed January 29, 2019
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fraser, James Earle |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American sculptor and medalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 4, 1876 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Winona , Minnesota , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 11, 1953 |
| Place of death | Westport , Connecticut , United States |