Alexander Stirling Calder

Alexander Stirling Calder
A. Stirling Calder at work on the Star Maiden (1913). Audrey Munson was the model.
Born(1870-01-11)January 11, 1870
DiedJanuary 7, 1945(1945-01-07) (aged 74)
NationalityAmerican
EducationPennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Académie Julian
Known forSculpture
Notable workWashington as President
Swann Memorial Fountain
Leif Eriksson Memorial

Alexander Stirling Calder (January 11, 1870 – January 7, 1945) was an American sculptor and teacher. He was the son of sculptor Alexander Milne Calder and the father of sculptor Alexander (Sandy) Calder. His best-known works are George Washington as President on the Washington Square Arch in New York City, the Swann Memorial Fountain in Philadelphia, and the Leif Eriksson Memorial in Reykjavík, Iceland.

Education

A. Stirling Calder was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of sculptor Alexander Milne Calder and Margaret Stirling. He attended city public schools, and enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Fall 1885, at age 15. He studied under Thomas Eakins for several months, until the teacher's forced resignation in February 1886. Calder remained at PAFA, studying under Thomas Anshutz and James P. Kelly. Two of his sculptures were accepted for PAFA's 1887 annual exhibition, a rare honor for a student.: 170 

His father designed and was then in the midst of executing, the extensive sculpture program for Philadelphia City Hall. Calder worked as an apprentice on the project during the summers, and is reported to have modeled an arm for one of the figures. He made his first trip to Europe in Summer 1889, and returned there to study the following year.: 170 

Calder moved to Paris in Fall 1890, where he studied at the Académie Julian under Henri Michel Chapu. The following year, he was accepted at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he entered the atelier of Alexandre Falguière.: 170 

Career

Swann Memorial Fountain (1920–1924), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

In 1892, he returned to Philadelphia and began his career as a sculptor in earnest. His first major commission, won in a national competition, was for a larger-than-life-size statue of Dr. Samuel Gross (1895–97) for the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Calder replicated the pose of Dr. Gross from Eakins's 1875 painting The Gross Clinic. Another early commission was for a set of twelve larger-than-life-size statues of Presbyterian clergymen for the facade of the Witherspoon Building (1898–99) in Philadelphia.: 170 

In 1906, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1913.

In Pasadena, he modeled architectural sculpture for the Throop Polytechnic Institute (now the California Institute of Technology). He returned to the east coast in 1910.: 171 

In 1912, he was named acting-chief (under Karl Bitter) of the sculpture program for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, a World's Fair to open in San Francisco, California, in February 1915. He obtained a studio in NYC and there employed the services of model Audrey Munson who posed for him – Star Maiden (1913–1915) – and a host of other artists. For the exposition, Calder completed three massive sculpture groups, The Nations of the East and The Nations of the West, which crowned triumphal arches, and a fountain group, The Fountain of Energy. Following Bitter's sudden death in April 1915, Calder completed the Depew Memorial Fountain (1915–1919) in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Leif Eriksson Memorial (1929–1932), Reykjavík, Iceland

Hermon Atkins MacNeil and Calder were commissioned to create larger-than-life-size sculptures for the Washington Square Arch in New York City. George Washington as Commander-in-Chief, Accompanied by Fame and Valor (1914–1916) was sculpted by MacNeil; and George Washington as President, Accompanied by Wisdom and Justice (1917–18) by Calder. These are sometimes referred to as Washington at War and Washington at Peace.

He sculpted a number of ornamental works for "Vizcaya", the James Deering estate outside Miami, Florida. These included the famous Italian Barge (1917–1919), a stone folly in the shape of a boat, projecting into Biscayne Bay.

Two of his major commissions of the 1920s were the Swann Memorial Fountain (1920–1924) in Logan Circle, and the architectural sculpture program for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (completed 1931), both in Philadelphia.

He was one of a dozen sculptors invited to compete in Oklahoma's Pioneer Woman statue competition in 1926–27, which was won by Bryant Baker. In 1927, he was also commissioned by the Berkshire Museum to sculpt the woodwork and fountain of the Museum's Ellen Crane Memorial Room in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

In 1929, he won the national competition for a monumental statue of Leif Eriksson, to be the gift of the United States to Iceland in commemoration of the 1000th anniversary of the Icelandic Parliament. Standing before the Hallgrímskirkja, the Lutheran cathedral in Reykjavík, and facing west toward the Atlantic Ocean and Greenland, the Leif Eriksson Memorial (1929–1932) has become as iconic for Icelanders as the Statue of Liberty is for Americans.

Teacher

Throughout his career, Calder frequently worked as a teacher. He was instructor in modeling at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art from 1899 to 1904. He taught at the National Academy of Design's evening school, 1910–11, and alongside Hermon Atkins MacNeil at NAD, 1911–12. He taught modeling at the Art Students League of New York, 1918–22.: 171  He was never on PAFA's faculty, but may have occasionally lectured there, where his friend Charles Grafly was instructor in sculpture.: 171, n. 4 

Personal

Calder married portrait painter Nanette Lederer on February 22, 1895, and they lived in Philadelphia for the first decade of their marriage. They had two children: Margaret Calder Hayes (1896–1988) and Alexander "Sandy" Calder III (1899–1976).: 171  Calder contracted tuberculosis in 1905, and he and his wife moved to Arizona for a year, leaving the children with friends (to protect them from the disease). Once he recovered his health, the family was reunited in 1906, and settled in Pasadena, California. They moved back east in 1910, and settled in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.: 171 

Calder died in 1945. He is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. His memoir, Thoughts of A. Stirling Calder on Art and Life (1947), was published posthumously.

Selected works

Map all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap
Title Image Year Location/GPS Coordinates Material Height Notes
Dr. Samuel D. Gross Memorial 1895–1897 Thomas Jefferson University,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
39°56′53″N 75°09′30″W / 39.94794167°N 75.15820278°W / 39.94794167; -75.15820278 (Dr. Samuel D. Gross Memorial)
bronze 111 in (280 cm)
Posthumous portrait of Dr. Gross, based on Thomas Eakins's 1875 painting.

From 1897 to 1970, the statue stood on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.:
Bust of Major General John F. Hartranft 1898 Smith Memorial Arch,
West Fairmount Park,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
39°58′39″N 75°12′24″W / 39.9775°N 75.206667°W / 39.9775; -75.206667 (Smith Memorial Arch)
bronze 36 in (91 cm) Gen. Hartranft was a U.S. Medal of Honor recipient for the First Battle of Bull Run.
Class of 1892 Drinking Fountain
(The Scholar and the Football Player)
1900 Quadrangle Dormitories,
University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
39°57′03″N 75°11′50″W / 39.950806°N 75.197306°W / 39.950806; -75.197306 (Quadrangle Dormitories),
bronze 21 in (53 cm)
Located under the arch at the top of the North Steps.
Overmantel frieze: The Boar Hunt c.1900 Keil Hall,
Mercersburg Academy,
Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
39°49′37″N 77°53′57″W / 39.8270°N 77.8991°W / 39.8270; -77.8991 (Boar Hunt)
carved oak Modeled by Calder, carved by John J. Maene.
Sewell Cross
Major General William Joyce Sewell Monument
1901 Harleigh Cemetery,
Camden, New Jersey
39°55′26″N 75°05′23″W / 39.923889°N 75.089722°W / 39.923889; -75.089722 (Harleigh Cemetery)
green granite 20 ft (6.1 m) Modeled by Calder, carved by Leland & Hall Company.

Gen. Sewell was a U.S. Medal of Honor recipient for the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Calder was awarded PAFA's 1905 Walter Lippincott Prize for the Sewell Cross.: 171 
Man Cub: "Sandy" Calder at Age 3 1901–02 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
plaster
(original lost)
45 in (110 cm) PAFA purchased Calder's plaster original in 1905, and used it to make a 1906 bronze cast.
The plaster was either returned to Calder or lost (by 1941).: 172 
A 1922 bronze cast is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Sundial 1903–1905 Fairmount Park Horticultural Center,
West Fairmount Park,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
39°58′59″N 75°12′45″W / 39.983150°N 75.212600°W / 39.983150; -75.212600 (Calder Sundial)
marble 56.5 in (144 cm) Located in the Sunken Gardens:
Missouri: The Queen of Rivers 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition,
St. Louis, Missouri
plaster Calder won a silver medal for his sculpture at the 1904 World's Fair.: 170 
Philippe Francois Renault plaster
Calder Cross
William Hickman Harte Memorial Cross
c.1905 Chippiannock Cemetery,
Rock Island, Illinois
41°28′54″N 90°34′40″W / 41.481667°N 90.577778°W / 41.481667; -90.577778 (Harte Monument)
granite 102 in (260 cm) Master William Hickman Harte was a Union naval officer who died in the June
17, 1862 Battle of Saint Charles, following the sinking of the USS Mound City.
Fifty years later, Harte's son located his Arkansas grave, and commissioned
this cenotaph for their home town cemetery.
Henry Charles Lea Monument 1911 Laurel Hill Cemetery,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
40°00′15″N 75°11′25″W / 40.0042°N 75.1902°W / 40.0042; -75.1902 (Henry Charles Lea Monument)
bronze
Henry Charles Lea was a noted historian.
The seated figure is Clio, the Muse of History:
Stretching Girl c.1911 National Academy of Design,
Manhattan, New York City
bronze 36 in (91 cm) Calder's NAD diploma piece, presented following his election as an Academician
in 1913. Robert Henri painted Calder's NAD diploma portrait.

Another bronze cast is at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
in Bentonville, Arkansas.
An American Stoic: Portrait of Najinyankte 1912 Rhode Island School of Design Museum,
Providence, Rhode Island
bronze 28 in (71 cm) A standing Sioux man wrapped in a blanket.
Star Maiden 1913–1915 Oakland Museum,
Oakland, California
bronze 51 in (130 cm)
The Star Maidens were balustrade figures surrounding the Court of the Universe:
Fountain of Energy (destroyed)





1913–1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition,
San Francisco, California
staff
"Energy, the Lord of the Isthmian Way, rides grandly upon the earth. His
outstretched arms have severed the lands and let the waters pass. Upon
his mighty shoulders stand Fame and Glory, heralding the coming of a
conqueror. Energy, the Power of the Future, the Superman, approaches."
The globe featured a large reclining female figure with the head of a lioness,
The Eastern Hemisphere, and a large reclining male figure with the head of
a bull, The Western Hemisphere:
4 sculpture groups were clustered around the globe:
The Atlantic Ocean, The Pacific Ocean, The North Sea, The South Sea
12 Nerieds riding dolphins were spaced around the pool's perimeter:
The Nations of the East (destroyed)

1913–1915 atop The Arch of the Rising Sun,
Panama–Pacific International Exposition,
San Francisco, California
staff
The Nations of the West (destroyed)

1913–1915 atop The Arch of the Setting Sun,
Panama–Pacific International Exposition,
San Francisco, California
staff
Crowning figure: Enterprise
Central figure: The Mother of Tomorrow
Depew Memorial Fountain 1915–1917 University Park,
Indianapolis, Indiana
39°46′19″N 86°09′25″W / 39.771944°N 86.156944°W / 39.771944; -86.156944 (Depew Memorial Fountain)
bronze Crowning figure:
90 in (230 cm)
Calder completed this commission following sculptor Karl Bitter's 1915 death.

Bitter's 1915 maquette for the fountain:
George Washington as President,
Accompanied by Wisdom and Justice
1917–18 Washington Square Arch,
Washington Square,
Manhattan, New York City
40°43′52″N 73°59′53″W / 40.73099°N 73.99805°W / 40.73099; -73.99805 (Washington Square Arch)
marble 12 ft (3.7 m)
Sometimes called Washington at Peace.
Hermon Atkins MacNeil modeled Washington at War (1914–16).
The pair flank the north side of the arch.
The Great Stone Barge
(Delights and Terrors of the Sea)
1917–1919 "Villa Vizcaya" (James Deering estate),
Coconut Grove, Florida
25°44′38″N 80°12′37″W / 25.743753°N 80.210232°W / 25.743753; -80.210232 (Italian Barge, Villa Vizcaya)
limestone
Calder's barge sculptures were criticized for being "excessively erotic."

The eroded sculptures were used to cast concrete replicas in 1981.
Garden sculpture
The Little Dear with the Tiny Black Swan
(Leda and the Swan)
1918–1921 Denver Art Museum,
Denver, Colorado
bronze 28 in (71 cm) A 60.25 in (153.0 cm) version is a promised gift to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Swann Memorial Fountain
(Fountain of Three Rivers)
1920–1924 Logan Circle,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
39°57′29″N 75°10′15″W / 39.95795°N 75.170819°W / 39.95795; -75.170819 (Swann Memorial Fountain)
bronze Central figures:
11 ft (3.4 m)
Wilson Eyre, architect.

The female allegorical figures represent the Schuylkill River and the
Wissahickon Creek.
The male Lenni Lenape figure represents the Delaware River.
Naiad with Tragic Mask
Model for a Fountain
c.1920 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
painted plaster 16.25 in (41.3 cm) A bronze cast is at the Reading Public Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania.
A larger plaster version is at the Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, New Jersey.
Scratching Her Heel 1921 Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Manhattan, New York City
bronze 12 in (30 cm) Another bronze cast is at the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia.
The Last Dryad 1921 Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
plaster 70.5 in (179 cm)
A 1926 bronze cast is at the University of California, Berkeley.
Shakespeare Memorial
(Tragedy and Comedy, Hamlet and the Fool)
1923–1926 In front of the Free Library of Philadelphia,
Logan Square,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
39°57′34″N 75°10′16″W / 39.9595°N 75.171°W / 39.9595; -75.171 (Shakespeare Memorial)
bronze 91.5 in (232 cm)
Gilbert McIlvaine, architect

Touchstone and Prince Hamlet:

Another bronze cast is at Brookgreen Gardens.
Head of George Bellows 1925 Conner-Rosenkranz Gallery,
Manhattan, New York City
plaster 14.5 in (37 cm) A bronze cast is at the New York Historical Society.
Our Lady and the Holy Child
(A Study in French Gothic Style)
1926 St. Mary's of Redford Church,
Detroit, Michigan
marble 7 ft (2.1 m) Located in a niche behind the High Altar.
Pioneer Woman (Self-Reliant) 1926–27 Woolaroc Museum,
Bartlesville, Oklahoma
36°38′32″N 96°05′45″W / 36.642339°N 96.095964°W / 36.642339; -96.095964 (Woolaroc)
bronze 40 in (100 cm) One of twelve bronze models created by American sculptors for the 1927
Pioneer Woman statue competition. Bryant Baker won the commission.
His heroic-sized Pioneer Woman was dedicated in 1930, in Ponca City, Oklahoma.

Calder received a $10,000 honorarium for his model.
Bust of John James Audubon 1927 Hall of Fame for Great Americans,
Bronx Community College,
Bronx, New York City
40°51′31″N 73°54′52″W / 40.858611°N 73.914444°W / 40.858611; -73.914444 (Hall of Fame for Great Americans)
bronze
Leif Eriksson Memorial
1929–1932 Hallgrímskirkja Cathedral,
Reykjavík, Iceland
bronze 139 in (3.5 m)
Gift of the United States commemorating the 1000th anniversary of the
founding of the Althing, Iceland's parliament.

The statue appeared on a U.S. postage stamp and an Icelandic coin.

Calder's plaster model is at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

A bronze cast is at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia.

View from the cathedral's tower, looking west to the Atlantic Ocean:
Cruel Nature: Self-Portrait at Age 60 c.1930 National Portrait Gallery,
Washington, D.C.
terra cotta 12.5 in (32 cm)
Robert Henri: The Painter-Teacher with the
Gift of Friendship

(Posthumous Bust of Robert Henri)
1934 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
plaster
(unlocated)
32 in (81 cm) Calder and Henri (1865–1929) had been friends since 1885, when both were first-year
students at PAFA.: 174 
Calder's widow had a bronze cast made of the bust in 1947, which she donated to PAFA.: 174 
Posthumous Bust of John Singer Sargent c.1934 Bronx Community College,
Bronx, New York City
plaster
Introspection c.1935 plaster
Continental Post Rider 1936 William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building,
Washington, D.C.
aluminum 51.5 in (131 cm)
Bust of William Penn 1936 Hall of Fame for Great Americans,
Bronx Community College,
Bronx, New York City
40°51′31″N 73°54′52″W / 40.858611°N 73.914444°W / 40.858611; -73.914444 (Hall of Fame for Great Americans)
bronze
Nature's Dance
(The Dance of Life)
1938 Brookgreen Gardens,
Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
33°31′14″N 79°05′59″W / 33.520556°N 79.099722°W / 33.520556; -79.099722 (Brookgreen Gardens)
Indiana limestone 80 in (200 cm)
Bishop William White 1940 Washington Memorial Chapel,
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
40°06′16″N 75°26′17″W / 40.104528°N 75.437944°W / 40.104528; -75.437944 (Washington Memorial Chapel)
bronze The Right Reverend White was the first bishop of the American Episcopal Church.

Calder's last major commission.
Bust of Winston Churchill 1943 plaster Inscription: "HAVE FAITH, HAVE HOPE, DELIVERANCE IS SURE." JULY 14, 1941.

Architectural sculpture

  • Twelve cast stone figures of Presbyterian clergymen, Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1898–99, Joseph Miller Huston, architect.
  • Four figures of famous actresses, marble, I. Miller Building, Broadway and West 46th Street, Manhattan, New York City, 1927–1929:
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Medallions

  • Life as a Dance (c.1938), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan, New York City

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