Baltimore Sculptors Win National Fame

This City Made A Mecca For Men Of Genius Because Of Skill Of Local Artisans In Bronze Work—New York Exhibit Has 22 Pieces Cast Here—Many Notables In Art Colony

BY EMILY EMERSON LASTZ.

Song and dancing are instinctive expressions of human emotions gradually developed into fine arts. Sculpture, which comes nest in antiquity, is more intellectual and spiritual. It is creation, an evolving from nothing into visible form of a beautiful, heroic, appealing, humorous, whimsical or inspirational idea conceived in the mind of man. Sculpture, more nearly than any art is symbolic of the resurrection of the body. the immortality of the spirit. Especially when one examines the small beginning. the gradual development of some rare work of genius in marble or bronze, does one appreciate the analogous significance of the scriptural words: “It is sown in weakness: it is raised in power.” To stand by and son a bronze figure unearthed from its grave of sand and casing of clay is to witness, us it were, the mortal put on immortality.

At the recent exhibition in New York city of the National Sculpture Society, part of which collection is now on view in this city, Baltimore artists were represented in marbles and bronze in such numbers that even he who ran must have realized that this city is now the center of activity for a large group of artists of exceedingly distinctive genius.

The fact that 22 bronzes showy at the New York exhibition were cast in a Baltimore brass foundry, the J. Arthur Limerick Company-which has the reputation of being one of the finest in the United States for the artistic casting of metals proves Baltimore to be a Mecca visited by artists of international reputation. They feel that here they may safely trust the transition of an inspirational thought from a perishable medium to abiding form.

The exhibition of sculpture now on in Baltimore under the auspices of the American Federation of Arts, and which is part of the recent exhibition of National Sculpture Society, in New York city, is most representative of work being done by local artists.

There are on view three interesting specimens of work by Ephriam Keyser, dean among Baltimore sculptors; a fine portrait of Henry Harlan, a spirited study in bronze entitled “Mischief.” showing an elfish baby satyr riding upon the shoulders of an aged satyr, and also a lady’s portrait in relief.

It also includes two reliefs, “Spring” and “Autumn,” by Ernest Wise Keyser, a Baltimorean by birth.

Hans Schuler. who held the Rinehart Scholarship 1901-1905， has on exhibition his brilliant statue in bronze, “Pheidippides,” the Greek runner who fell dead in Athens after delivering tidings of the Battle of Marathon. Mr. Schuler also displays his impressive and beautiful work. “Paradise,” expressing vividly the emotions of Adam and Eve upon their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. His further studies exhibited are his “Bust of a Grandmother,” “Dancer.” “Head of an Infant” and “Narcissis.”

EDWARD BERGE exhibits nine of his happiest creations. These are his “Fountain Figure,” “Madelaine and Gary Black,” “Muse,” “Pieta.” “Sea Urchin,” “Violet.” “Woodwind.” “Wild Flower” and “Will o’ the Wisp.”

Rachel M. Hawks. (Mrs. Arthur W. Hawks) has a charming study. “Sixteen.”

J. Edgar Stouffer. who held the Rinehart scholarship for 1907-1911, has a relief, “Festival of the Grapes,” and a fine study of “Pan and Goat.”

The heroic figure of Robert Morris, the Colonial financier, designed to adorn the steps of the Custom House, Philadelphia, was also cast in Baltimore and designed by Paul W. Bartlett, who executed the bronze equestrian statue of Lafayette in the square of the Louvre. The statue of Robert Morris stands at present on Mount Vernon Place, and other of the same sculptor’s designs cast in this city are the heroic figure of the scientist, Alexander Agassiz, his bust called “Philosophy,” his “Michelangelo,” “Sculpin” and Bartett’s curious horned toad of Brazil.

There was also cast during, the past week at the Baltimore foundry the wonderfully spirited bronze figure of “The Football Kicker,” by Jack Lambert, which is the trophy to be presented by THE EVENING SUN to the winner of the football game to be played at the Stadium November 10th between the teams of the Atlantic Scouting Fleet and the Third Corps Area. Mr. Lambert succeeds in imparting action in remarkable degree in his athletic figure, and has just completed a design, “The Sprinter,” a trophy for a national competition whose, object is to develop rapid runners.

There is also in process of casting here the memorial bronze designed by Hans Schuler as a tribute to Maryland men who fought in the Word War, and which will be placed over the lunette of the Fifth Regiment Armory.

At the same foundry were cast and are exhibited at the present time at the Baltimore Museum of Art Anna Vauhn Hyatt Huntington’s most remarkable jungle study; “Tiger and Heron,” showing the bird, caught on the wing by his four-footed enemy. Also Harriet Hyatt Mayer’s bronze, bust: of ‘Rear – Admiral Goldsborough and Brenda Putnam’s portrait bust of Pablo Casals. Other bronzes cast here that were exhibited in New York are Renee Prohar’s “Faust,” Alexander Porthoff’s bust of Dr. Charles H. La Wall and H. K. Bush-Brown’s bust of Н. K. Brown.

Mr. J. Maxwell Miller, who was one of the committee of arrangements for the present exhibition, was a winner of the Rinehart scholarship to Paris in 1901-05 and has achieved signal distinction at home and abroad because of the inspirational quality of his work. His group from the monument on University Parkway, dedicated to the Confederate Women of Maryland, is of rare loveliness, and his “Separation of Orpheus and Eurydice” is one of the treasures of the Peabody Institute.

ONE cannot imagine being frivolous in a sculptor’s atelier. So full of dreamlike unreality seems the place it appears almost daring to ask, the artist how he evolves the objects of beauty he creates.

“Do you mean the actual making of a statue, the manual processes?” asked the sculptor, Mr. J. Maxwell Miller, who was good enough to permit his working day to be interrupted by a visitor from the work-a day world.

“Yes, tell me, please. how you breathe upon the dry bones and bid them rise a quickened spirit.”

“First,” he said. “is evolved the idea in the mind of the artist, which must then be given visible form. It may be drawn upon paper or modeled in a small lump no bigger than the width of a man’s hand Then he, makes what he calls a sketch, just a little sketch, in clay. From this he progresses to nude studies from living models. for even if the figure be draped it is essential that the spectator feel a sense of the human body underneath the drapery or clothing. If this effect is not attained, the figure becomes merely a mannikin for the display of a costume.

“This study from the nude is created about an armature, an upright rod adjusted upon a heavy wooden base. To this rod are attached with copper wire, lengths of small lead pipes that being flexible can be twisted into any curve or angle the sculptor may i desire. It is customary to make the working e model one-third size. If it were half-size the artist would be hampered by the feeling that he was making a little man, but being one-third it always remains a model, the forecast of something larger and finer.

“Into this study begins to creep the idea of the sculptor and his character as well,-for no work of art can attain greater inspirational quality than the character of the man himself. Some men lack skill to express their artistic aspirations, but whatever their genius to visualize through form, no man can express in clay. marble or bronze. anything higher or greater than his own character.

“The figure being finished to within the sixteenth of an inch of the nude model, is then pointed up. The pantograph can be used to square the design up, this being an instrument to copy outlines on any predetermined scale. The figure may then be finished by the sculptor himself or the stone may be chiseled away to these points by skilled stone cutters who never go beyond one of these guiding [illegible]. The vital thing in this creative process is never throughout these many changes to lose the vision, the idea. If this be lost, the work is ruined.

“In order that draperies may suggest the human form beneath, clinging cheesecloth is arranged and sprinkled with water and modeled while wet. Or if flying draperies are to be reproduced so simple a medium as tissue paper may aid the sculptor to achieve his ideal.”