Lorado Taft

Lorado Taft was not only a sculptor of imagination; he embodied in his own work extremely positive convictions, both of the true ideal of sculpture and of the special place which it ought to fill in American life and art. He once remarked of the ultra-modern school’s innovations, grasping ostensibly at “absolute form,” that its experiments resulted usually in production of “absolute deformity.” As to existing American sculpture, he did not depreciate the work of our truly imaginative artists, but spoke with considerable scorn (which might have had in mind the Mall at Central Park or the Rotunda of the Capitol) that the only real beauty of the average American community resided in its trees and its girls. Yet he believed in the part which sculpture might hereafter play in the civic beautifying of America. “Our writers,” he said, “write casually, our painters paint casually, our musicians compose casually; everything we do is journalistic,” and his conclusion was that sculpture, properly conceived and idealized, is the one “refuge for Americans with the love for creating something lasting.”

Probably Taft, whose criticism was apt to be tinged with caustic emphasis, was unjust to the best of our imaginative painters. But his own artistic career was sincerely devoted to bringing into shape his ideals regarding American art. The subjects which appealed to him are indicated by some of his best-remembered works—his “Blackhawk Indian,” his “Alma Mater” at Illinois University, his colossal “Patriots” and “Pioneers” at the Louisiana State-house, not least his plaque of the Lincoln-Douglas debate. The manner in which such themes inspired him is suggested by an anecdote told regarding the Lincoln-Douglas memorial. Reminded by the political commission in charge, after submitting his design, that he had not made Douglas prominent enough in relation to the Lincoln figure, Taft replied: “It was not my fault, but God’s.” He completed the picture as he had originally designed it.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1937 Century Association Yearbook