b. 1850 d. 1931
Site Affiliation: Chesterwood
Born in Exeter, NH, Daniel Chester French also lived in Concord, MA, where he took art lessons with May Alcott. In 1873 he received his first commission: the Minute Man for Concord. Before its dedication, he left for Florence, Italy, to work in the studio of American sculptor Thomas Ball. Upon his return, French joined his family in Washington and commenced a series of government commissions, thanks to his father, Assistant Treasury Secretary. In 1888 French married his cousin Mary Adams French and moved to NYC; after 1896 they summered at Chesterwood. French’s successful career included commissions for portraits, allegorical groups for Beaux-arts buildings, monuments, and memorials. In 1914, he received the most important commission of his career: a figure of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial. French continued to sculpt until his death, still at work on the marble Andromeda. He is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.
Primary Medium: Sculpture
Primary Stylistic Term: Beaux-arts sculpture in the classical tradition; American Renaissance period
HAHS Affiliations: French’s daughter is Margaret French Cresson. French was friends with Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and had a sculpture studio on MacDougal Alley in the early decades of the 20th century. The site of his studio is now part of New York Studio School. French was also friendly with Augustus Saint-Gaudens, visiting the sculptor in Cornish, New Hampshire. French arranged the retrospective of the artist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, after Saint-Gaudens’ death. Albin Polasek gifted French one of his small sculptural works, which is still in the collection at Chesterwood.
Fun Fact: Daniel Chester French’s 1898 Studio was designed by architect Henry Bacon, who would later design the Lincoln Memorial. The Studio features an ingenious railroad track, which allowed French to push his monumental plaster models outside on a flatbed railcar. He could then view the work from below and make modifications in the light of the day.
Recommended Publications: Monuments and Myths: The America of Sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French, edited by Andrew Eschelbacher (Munich: Hirmer, 2023); Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French by Harold Holzer (Hudson, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2019); Daniel Chester French: An American Sculptor by Michael Richman (New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1976).