Studio of Lorado Taft: as reproduced upon the platform

              1909
240

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Figure

Studio of LORADO TAFT
as reproduced upon the platform
Chautauqua Managers Association Chicago




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NO INTRODUCTION of Lorado Taft is needed to the intelligent American public; but we believe a word as to his career will be of interest to those who anticipate the pleasure of hearing him.  A native of Illinois, he was graduated from the State University at Champaign at the age of nineteen.  His taste for sculpture revealed itself when he was a boy of thirteen.  A foreign sculptor had been called from Chicago to mend the statues of the newly acquired University collection, broken in transit, and young Taft watched him with growing interest and a desire to emulate him.  Throughout his school days and later college life he constantly pursued modeling in clay, and thus laid the foundation for the fame which came to him after his studies in Paris, where he went in 1880.  He studied three years in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and took honorable mention at the close of the first year, and the first prize of the atelier at the end of his third year.  After the close of his student life in Paris he returned to this country and became in 1886 instructor in the Art Institute of Chicago, which position he has held ever since.  He is a member of the Municipal Art Commission of Chicago, a Director of the Municipal Art League, a member of the National Sculpture Society, and was for two years President of the Western Society of Artists.  He is one of the best known sculptors of this country, and no one is more capable of learnedly reviewing art subjects.  During the Columbian Exposition Mr. Taft frequently lectured in the Fine Arts building, and came to be recognized as an authority on all matters relating to works of art, as well as to his chosen profession.  Two groups, the Sleep, and the Awakening of the Flowers, by him adorned the entrance of Horticultural Hall, and excited much admiration.  Mr. Taft's letters in the Chicago Record on the art of the Paris Exposition of 1900, were widely quoted.  His History of American Sculpture, published in November, 1903, has been fitly termed a monumental work, and has received many columns of praise from the best critics.  Mr. Taft's sculpture includes the statue of Schuyler Colfax at Indianapolis, General Grant at Fort Leavenworth, and figures on various military monuments throughout the country.  He has modeled busts of many eminent writers and educators of this country.  In ideal sculpture he has produced figures of Despair and Knowledge, and the impressive group, The Solitude of the Soul, which won a medal at Buffalo.  Mr. Taft is an easy and fluent speaker, full of spontaneity, alive with humor, interesting his audience as he carries them almost unconsciously through an evening of the highest educational value.  His lectures, as shown from the synopsis following, are full of information and thoroughly illustrated, either by actual processes of modeling or by the stereopticon.  Mr. Crunnelle will assist Mr. Taft at each lecture.


LECTURE I—A Glimpse of a Sculptor's Studio, or How Statues are Made.
The materials—clay, plaster, marble, bronze.  The tools.  Building up a bust from life.  The problem of features, proportion and expression.  The big skull.  The muscular mask.  Rapid changes in the shape of the head.  The portrait of the Princess of Lamballe.  From youth to old age, with occasional digressions.  Building up a figure; pose and proportions.  Expression in lines.  Draping a statue.  The plaster cast.  Piece molds and lost molds.  Chopping out a cast.  The marble.  The pointing instrument.  Trials and perplexities of marble cutting.  Triumphs of the sculptor's art.  Illustrated fully at each step by the actual process upon the stage.

LECTURE II—American Sculptors and Sculpture.
From Greenough, Powers and Crawford to Ward, St. Gaudens, French, MacMonnies, Bartlett, Barnard and the younger men.  With 150 beautiful illustrations of their representative works.






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LORADO TAFT, Sculptor



The Sun   Springfield, Ohio
Lorado Taft appeared at the city hall last evening, and while his audience was not the largest which has characterized Star Course entertainments in this city, it was nevertheless an appreciative one, and will bear testimony to the fact that Mr. Taft is capable of rendering a most satisfactory and altogether pleasing evening's entertainment.  Mr. Taft lectured on A Glimpse of the Sculptor's Studio, or How Statues Are Made. He used a number of subjects and worked in clay modeling before the eyes of the audience.  It was something marvelous, for with a few touches of his fingers he transformed a shapeless mass of clay into a face, and in the twinkling of an eye changed the expression on that face from laughter to tears, from joy to sadness, from seriousness to surprise, just as he desired.  He is also a fascinating lecturer and a humorist of no mean ability.  These traits worked pleasingly with his ability as a sculptor.


The World   Kansas City, Mo.
Kansas City's culture and refinement were there to listen to Lorado Taft on French Art and Artists.  It was probably the most aesthetic audience ever assembled in Kansas City, to listen to as excellent and able a lecturer as has come into our midst.


The Tribune   Sioux City, Iowa
With a running fire of witty comment, of happy comparison and intelligent description, Mr. Taft held his audience spellbound during the two hours which seemed to bring the speaker, the audience, the artists and their creations into very close relations.


The Courier   Evansville, Ind.
Mr. Taft is a fascinating and eloquent lecturer, and these art talks will be of great benefit to art-loving people of the country, serving to elevate the tone of what has been known as art heretofore and pointing out wherever errors may be corrected.


Daily Telegram   Adrian, Mich.
Lorado Taft, the noted sculptor, delivered his lecture on A Glimpse of a Sculptor's Studio, or How Statues Are Made. Mr. Taft's reputation is world-wide, and to speak of his work apart from his lecture would be superfluous.  He works in clay and talks all the time, giving what he calls a little lesson on anatomy, a sermon and some fun.  Mr. Taft showed what can be done in clay while talking, taking the problem of features, proportion and expression.  The portrait of the Princess of Lamballe, and the many changes wrought by the manipulation of the fingers into old age, were wonderful exhibitions of what an artist can do.


Daily Times   Adrian, Mich.
Prof. Lorado Taft gave his lecture, A Glimpse of the Sculptor's Studio, before a large audience of Star Course patrons at the Croswell Thursday evening.  The lecture was devoted to clay modeling, in which he showed a sculptor's workshop as it really is, with the artist at work.  Mr. Taft is a fascinating and eloquent lecturer, who holds the attention of his audience from start to finish.  He gave a striking illustration of what can be done with clay in the hands of a master, by changing the face of a young girl to that of a matron, and then to an aged dame of four score.