Philanthropy during the City Beautiful movement:
Paul Goodloe Mclntire made his gifts of figurative monumental outdoor sculpture to the city of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia during the late City Beautiful movement from 1919-1924. His gifts came shortly after many of the nation's great industrialists, men such as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Russell Sage had formed charitable foundations to finance large-scale public benefits throughout America. These men saw the value of culture and education as a means to improve the quality of life in an increasingly technological world, and they shared religious commitments, a sense of community order, and a concept of economic justice. When they gave, they frequently did so amidst much fanfare and publicity, thereby providing inspiration for less wealthy civic-minded men like Mclntire who, in turn, made smaller but very substantial public gifts. Members of this group commonly directed their gifts to particular institutions or cities, seeking to advance education and culture within a more limited geographic area, often a hometown or a locality where their wealth had been earned. With few national initiatives available for financing cultural projects, many were avid supporters of civic beautification and the arts, but these men were generally selective about what their gifts were to be.
The National Sculpture Society and the City Beautiful Movement:
During the early twentieth century, the sculpture likely to appeal to philanthropists such as Paul Mclntire was heavily influenced by the figurative style and the historical and allegorical bents of members of the National Sculpture Society. The Columbian Exposition of 1893 provided the first major opportunity for American sculptors to prove their figurative expertise to a mass audience. Daniel Chester French, Frederick William MacMonnies, and other eminent sculptors of the day used staff, an inexpensive material composed of plaster and fibers to produce impressive monumental works with allegorical and historical themes. The relatively low cost of staff enabled a copious display of their talents throughout the fair. Sculpture was to be found literally everywhere, on the tops of buildings, on bridges, beside stairways, beneath entrances to buildings, etc.
Court of Honor 1893 World Fair
(Image by (Not Known) Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org), Author: Author Not Given) Details Source DMCAAfter the exposition, selected sculptors joined to form a professional organization which became the National Sculpture Society (NSS) in 1896. The society had as its goal the placement of American sculpture in homes, public buildings, parks, and squares throughout the nation. During the next four decades members of the NSS worked toward this end, consistently securing the best, most visible, and richest commissions, and becoming the most important sculptors in the nation at the time. NSS members linked themselves with organizations such as the Architectural League, the National Society of Mural Painters, and the Municipal Art Society. These groups, acting in concert, espoused figurative public sculpture of historical and allegorical subjects as a means of familiarizing people with the best and most fundamental values of past and present cultures. "It is self evident that our public monuments should give some adequate idea of history, both local and national," wrote NSS member Henry Kirke Bush-Brown in 1899, "Their reason for being is to inspire the beholder with high ideals and to emulation of deeds of self-sacrifice, valor, or patriotism." Brown and others believed that figurative sculptures of great men and events would serve to "supplement the study of books in our schools and form a part of our educational methods." Sculpture, in other words, could perform a valuable function by teaching history and serving as an inspiration for future charity and patriotism. But with little or no government funds available for the purpose of erecting such expensive inspirational works, the production of most public sculpture depended on private initiatives.
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