A Noble Idealism
Sculptor
Barnard
left a controversial legacy
Madisonians
did not accept
his talent at the time
By
Don Ward
Editor
 |
|
February
2012 |
(February 2012) – Exactly 75 years ago this
month, the Ohio River Valley was recovering from the worst flood in
modern times – the 1937 Flood. The flood began in January and lasted
through early February of that year. The 72.7 foot water level in Madison,
Ind., stands as the city’s highest ever recorded. The most recent
April 2011 flood was 49.3 feet. And with all the rain and flooding in
2011, this past year became the wettest on record, a stark reminder
of that earlier calamity.
As a way of reminding folks of this river history, the City of Madison
and the Riverfront Development Corp. in December decided to launch a
design competition for an interactive sculpture that would be created
along the riverfront. A call for design entries from artists and engineers
was made, with a deadline of Feb. 1.
“We don’t know how artists will depict the flooding, but we
are open to fresh ideas,” said Louann Waller of the Riverfront
Development Corp. “The final design chosen will be something that
people can ride or touch or climb. It will be fun and unique, something
people will enjoy for generations.”
Collaboration between artists and engineers was encouraged. Public safety,
durability and low maintenance were emphasized. Materials used were
to be able to withstand heat, cold, rain, snow, occasional flooding
and be resistant to vandalism.
The Madison Bicentennial Fund and a recent grant from the Community
Foundation of Madison and Jefferson County have provided $1,000 to each
of three finalists to build working models of their designs. The idea
was for these three finalist models to be placed on display throughout
Madison’s 2012 festival season for input from the public. The selected
design’s permanent installation is planned for the corner of West
Street and Vaughn Drive.
 |
|
Smithsonian
photo George
Grey |
But no entries were received until Jan. 28, when one entry
trickled in. Officials are considering extending the deadline, according
Bicentennial chairperson Jan Vetrhus.
“We may need more time to better explain what it is that we are
looking for,” she said.
In some ways, the exercise demonstrates how rare it is to find a sculpture
artist capable of creating such a significant and lasting piece. But
in Madison’s history, there was one artist who ascended all expectations
and went on to become an internationally renown sculptor – George
Grey Barnard.
Barnard, who lived from 1863-1938, was born in Bellefonte, Pa., but
grew up in Kankakee, Ill., the son of Joseph Barnard and Martha Grubb.
In his later years he made frequent visits to Madison because his father
had moved there to become the minister at the Second Presbyterian Church.
The elder Barnards lived in Madison for 30 years, becoming prominent
figures in the community and residing at 612 W. Second St. Joseph later
took over as chaplain at the Madison State Hospital. Their home later
became Gans Funeral Home and is now condominiums.
The family became close friends with Drusilla Lanier Cravens, a granddaughter
of the renowned wealthy businessman, J.F.D. Lanier. At Cravens urging,
Barnard in 1929 donated a collection of 50 studio plaster statues to
Madison. It was placed on display in the former Grace Episcopal Methodist
Church on Second Street. The exhibit, which contained several nudes,
was controversial and unappreciated by Madisonians and lasted only seven
years before Barnard had it shipped to his native Kankakee and offered
to the school he attended as a child, Kankakee Central School. Today,
a 100-piece collection is on display at the Kankakee Historical Society
Museum.
 |
|
Photo by Rick Dikeman Barnard’s |
Barnard became interested in art at an early age, playing
with the clay of the Mississippi River while his father was a minister
in Muscatine, Iowa. At age 13, then living in Kankakee, he perfectly
sculpted his sister’s head. This talent led him to apply for art
school in Chicago.
At age 19 he moved to Chicago to study at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The sale of his work enabled him to afford to move to Paris just 18
months later.
From 1883-1887 he worked under the tutelage of Pierre-Jules Cavelier
at Paris while he attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. While in Paris,
he met Alfred Clark, a wealthy American art collector who became an
important patron. Barnard lived in Paris 12 years, with his first exhibit
in 1894 at the Salon de Champ de Mars. He was considered a great success
by the time he returned to America in 1896. Practically an overnight
success, he was admitted an an associate member in the Societe Nationale
des Beaux-Arts.
Upon returning to America, he taught at the Art Students’ League
of New York for three years but returned to Paris in 1904 to complete
two marble allegorical groups, the “Broken law” and the “UnBroken
Law” for the Pennsylvania State Capitol. It was a colossal project
and much-criticized because it contained 32 nudes.
A strong Rodin influence is evident in his early work. His principal
works include “The Boy,” (1885); “Cain” (1886),
later destroyed; “Brotherly Love,” sometimes called “Two
Friends” (1887); the allegorical “Two Natures” (1894),
which is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York; “The Hewer”
(1902 in Cairo, Ill.); “Great God Pan” Dodge Hall quadrangle
on the Columbia University campus in New York City; the “Rose Maiden”;
and “Maidenhood.” He completed the Pennsylvania state capitol
monument in 1912.
Barnard was a controversial figure in his time. He sculpted nudes and
was often referred to as a modern-day Michelangelo. But his talent went
far beyond that. He later became known for his many statues of a non-bearded
Abraham Lincoln. One such larger-than-life statue of Lincoln stands
in Lytle Park in downtown Cincinnati. Created in 1917 at the commission
of Charles P. Taft, the Lincoln statue received much criticism because
of Barnard’s use of rough-hewn features and a slouching stance.
Even Lincoln’s own son, Robert Todd Lincoln, objected to it. But
the statue had one famous supporter, former President Theodore Roosevelt,
who said, “The greatest statue of our age has revealed the greatest
soul of our age.” In the end, the art lovers of Barnard’s
work prevailed, and a second casting of the Lincoln statue stands in
Manchester, England (1919). A third copy (1922) stands in Louisville,
Ky., on the lawn of the Free Public Library.
 |
|
Photo
provided Barnard’s
colossal monument that |
Barnard had a commanding personal manner, according to
articles written about him during his life. “He talks of art as
if it were a cabalistic science of which he is the only astrologer,”
wrote the unsympathetic French art dealer Rene Gimpel. “He speaks
to impress. He’s a sort of Rasputin of criticism. The Rockefellers
are his imperial family, and the dealers court him.”
Interested in medieval art, Barnard gathered discarded fragments of
medieval architecture from French villages before World War I. He established
this collection in a churchlike brick building near his home in Washington
Heights, Manhattan in New York City. He built The Cloisters to house
his his personal collection and in 1925 sold it to John D. Rockefeller
Jr. Rockefeller donated it to the city of New York, and today it forms
part of the nucleus of The Cloisters collection, part of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
A second collection, The Abbaye, was sold by his estate to the Philadelphia
Museum of Art.
 |
|
Photo
courtesy of Kankakee Historical Society George
Grey Barnard donated this |
Only two Barnard works exist in Madison. One is a larger-than-life
statue of an angelic woman with her hands reaching up to the heavens
stands over his parents grave in Springdale Cemetery. The statue is
titled, “Let There Be Light.” Barnard placed the statue over
his parents’ grave, which he intentionally designed with no names
or dates of death on it. Like his minister father, Barnard abhorred
the “Grim Reaper” image of death and preferred to depict not
death but the afterlife.
A bronze replica of the statue stands over the gravesite of Mr. and
Mrs. Isaac Wolfe Bernheim in Louisville. Bernheim was a German immigrant
and successful whiskey brewer in Clermont, Ky., who left 14,000 acres
– the largest privately owned nature preserve in Kentucky
– to the state. Bernheim Forest opened to the public in 1950.
The other statue in Madison is a 16-inch-tall plaster study bust of
a woman (head and shoulders only) that is part of the art collection
belonging to Historic Madison Inc. and housed in the building next to
the Windle Auditorium on Third Street. The collection is only available
for viewing by the public by appointment and on special occasions.
HMI Executive Director John Staicer described the piece as resembling
Barnard’s “Rising Woman” statue that is owned by the
Rockefeller Family.
 |
|
Photo
courtesy of Jan Vetrhus George
Grey Barnard’s parents, |
Vetrhus, who helped organize the Madison Bicentennial
in 2009, had researched Barnard’s life because she often leads
cemetery tours and talks about the Springdale statue. She said Barnard’s
story in particular inspired her to develop the idea to bring Madison’s
historic figures to life during the weeklong Bicentennial celebration
by having character actors portray them.
“I think it is important that we tell our children about these
people who came from Madison or had ties to Madison and went on to do
great things in their lives,” Vetrhus said. “They are great
examples to our youth that you can be anything you want to be.”
In 1895 Barnard married Edna Monroe of Boston. They had one son, Monroe,
and two daughters, Vivia and Barbara. He spent the last few years of
his life working on a monumental project to peace titled, “Rainbow
Arch,” which was never realized. It consisted of more than 50 large-sized
heroic figures. It was never finished beyond full-scale plaster models,
which were later destroyed.
 |
|
Smithsonian
photo This photo of George Grey Barnard was taken by Jay Te Winburn circa 1932. It is part of the collection at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. |
Barnard died of heart attack on April 24, 1938, at the
Harkness Pavilion, Columbia University Medical Center in New York. He
was 74 and working on a statue of Abel, betrayed by his brother Cain,
when he fell ill and ignoring doctors’ orders to slow down. Had
he lived until May 10 he would have seen the opening of The Cloisters,
housing his notable Gothic artwork.
A bust of the famous sculptor was completed by W. Stanley Martineau
just before his death. Barnard is interred at Harrisburg Cemetery in
Harrisburg, Pa., not far from the statues he had sculptured. In reporting
the news of his death, one newspaper called it “the close of a
career animated by fine fervor, a noble idealism.”
• Sources for this article include various newspaper reports from a file at the Madison-Jefferson County Public Library; Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art collection; Kankakee (Ill.) Historical Society, and various online resources and articles.