Lorado Zadok Taft (April 29, 1860 – October 30, 1936) was an American sculptor, writer and educator.[1] Part of the American Renaissance movement, his monumental pieces include, Fountain of Time, Spirit of the Great Lakes, and The Eternal Indian. His 1903 book, The History of American Sculpture, was the first survey of the subject and stood for decades as the standard reference. He has been credited with helping to advance the status of women as sculptors.
Taft was born in Elmwood, Illinois. His parents were Don Carlos Taft and Mary Lucy Foster.[2] His father was a professor of geology at the Illinois Industrial University (later renamed the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign). He lived much of his childhood at 601 E. John Street, Champaign, Illinois, near the center of the UIUC campus. The house, now known as the Taft House was built by his father in 1873. It was purchased by the university in 1949 and moved about one mile southeast.[3] After being homeschooled by his parents, Taft earned his bachelor's degree (1879) and master's degree (1880) at Illinois Industrial University.
In 1892, while the art community of Chicago was preparing for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, chief 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 (it was not socially accepted for women to work as sculptors at that time) for the Horticultural Building. Burnham responded, "Hire anyone, even white rabbits, if they'll do the work." From that arose a group of talented women sculptors known as "the White Rabbits", which included Enid Yandell, Carol Brooks MacNeil, Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Janet Scudder, Julia Bracken, and Ellen Rankin Copp.
Later, another former student, Frances Loring, noted that Taft used his students' talents to further his own career, a not-uncommon situation. In general, history has given Taft credit for helping to advance the status of women as sculptors.
At a meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota to decide which artist submission to select for a monument of Col. William Colvill to go in the Minnesota State Capitol rotunda, the state art commission asked the opinion of Taft who was in the city at the time. While he did not recommend any of the models, he thought the model by Catherine Backus had points in its favor. Originally the commission favored the model by John K. Daniels but it was voted down. They then selected Backus' model to execute in a nine foot full-size bronze.[5][6][7]
Lectures and writings
As Taft grew older, his eloquence and compelling writing led him, along with Frederick Ruckstull, to the forefront of sculpture's conservative ranks, where he often served as a spokesperson against the modern and abstract trends that developed during his lifetime. Taft's frequent lecture tours for the Chautauqua gave him a broad, popular celebrity status.
In some settings, Taft is better known for his writings than for his sculpture. In 1903, Taft published The History of American Sculpture, the first survey of the subject. The revised 1925 version was to remain the standard reference on the subject until the art historian E. Wayne Craven published Sculpture in America in 1968. In 1921, Taft published Modern Tendencies in Sculpture, a compilation of his lectures given at the Art Institute of Chicago. At the time, it offered a distinct perspective on the development of European sculpture; today, the book continues to be regarded as an excellent survey of American sculpture in the early years of the 20th century.
He maintained his connections with his alma mater throughout his life. (His association with the University is commemorated by a street named in his honor.) In 1929, he dedicated his sculpture Alma Mater on the University of Illinois campus. Taft envisioned his Alma Mater as a benign and magnificent woman, about 14 ft (4.3 m) high and dressed in classical draperies, rising from a throne and advancing a step forward with outstretched arms in a gesture of generous greeting to her children. Two figures behind her on either side represent the university's motto, Learning and Labor.[10]
Final years
He received numerous awards, prizes, and honorary degrees.[citation needed]
Taft was active until the end of his life. The week before he died, he attended the Quincy, Illinois, dedication ceremonies for his sculpture celebrating the Lincoln–Douglas debates.[1] He died in his home studio in Chicago on October 30, 1936.[11] He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at Elmwood Cemetery near Bloomington, Illinois.[12]
The University of Illinois Archives has a series of photographs of most of Taft's important works, including many of their construction and preliminary models.[13]
Following 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.
The last major commission that Taft completed was two groups for the front entrance to the Louisiana State Capitol Building, dedicated in 1932.
He left unfinished a vast work to be called the Fountain of Creation which he planned to place at the opposite end of the Chicago Midway to the Fountain of Time.[14] Parts of this work were donated to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and are now at the library and Foellinger Auditorium. The University named a dormitory and a street in Taft's honor.[15]
^Toepp, Jamie; Cooper, Ashley; Carrillo, Samantha. "Taft House". Explore C-U. University of Illinois. Retrieved November 13, 2019. Archived at Archive.org, January 2, 2018
^Luebke, Thomas E., ed. (2013). "Appendix B". Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. Washington, D.C.: US Commission of Fine Arts. p. 556.
^Weller, Allen Stuart (2014). La France, Robert G.; Adams, Henry; Thomas, Stephen P. (eds.). Lorado Taft: The Chicago Years. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. pp. 197–98. ISBN9780252096464.
Bach, Ira; Lackritz Gray, Mary (1983). Chicago's Public Sculpture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Barnard, Harry (1971). This Great Triumvirate of Patriots – The inspiring story behind Lorado Taft's Chicago Monument to George Washington, Robert Morris and Haym Solomon. Chicago: Follett Publishing. ISBN9780695802721.
Contemporary American Sculpture. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, San Francisco: The National Sculpture Society. 1929.
Weller, Allen Stuart (1985). Lorado in Paris – the Letters of Lorado Taft 1880–1885. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN9780252011078.
External links
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