Editing Daniel Chester French (section)

==Career==
[[File:Daniel Chester French in his New York studio.jpg|thumb|French in his studio with the model for Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Alice Cogswell, {{Circa|1889}}]]
[[Image:HBaconChesterwood.jpg|thumb|[[Chesterwood (Massachusetts)|Chesterwood]] in [[Stockbridge, Massachusetts]], French's summer home, studio, and gardens, now a [[National Trust for Historic Preservation]] site]]
French first earned acclaim for ''[[The Minute Man]]'', commissioned by the town of [[Concord, Massachusetts]], which was unveiled April 19, 1875, on the centenary of the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]], the first armed conflict of the [[American Revolutionary War]].

French established his own studio, first in [[Washington, D.C.]], which he later moved to [[Boston]] and then to [[New York City]]. In 1893, French's reputation grew with his ''[[Statue of the Republic]]'' for the [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in [[Chicago]]. Other works by French include the ''First Division Monument'' and the ''Butt-Millet Memorial Fountain'', both in Washington, D.C., ''[[Statue of John Harvard|John Harvard]]'' on the campus of [[Harvard University]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], bronze doors for the [[Boston Public Library]] in [[Boston]], and ''[[Four Continents (French)|Four Continents]]'' at the U.S. Custom House, New York, later renamed the [[Alexander Hamilton US Custom House]]. In addition to the [[Lincoln Memorial]], French collaborated with architect [[Henry Bacon]] on memorials around the country, including the [[Dupont Circle]] fountain in Washington, D.C.

In 1893, French was a founding member of the [[National Sculpture Society]], and he was appointed a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1913.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter F|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterF.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=April 7, 2011}}</ref> During this time, he served as an instructor at the [[Art Students League of New York]], teaching sculpture there in 1890 and 1898.<ref>{{cite web|title=Daniel Chester French (1850–1931)|date=June 2010 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fren/hd_fren.htm|access-date=December 22, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Instagram |author=The Art Students League of NY|user=aslny|postid=CrRiJltMQ_1|date=April 21, 2023 |title=Happy birthday to League artist Daniel Chester French (1850—1931) best known for creating the Lincoln Memorial.|language=English|access-date=December 22, 2023|link=https://www.instagram.com/p/CrRiJltMQ_1/}}</ref> French also became a member of the [[National Academy of Design]] (1901), the [[The American Academy of Arts and Letters|American Academy of Arts and Letters]] (which awarded him the Gold Medal for Sculpture in 1917), the [[Architectural League]], and the [[Accademia di San Luca]], of Rome. He was a trustee of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York City, and a co-founder of the [[American Academy in Rome]]. He was a Chevalier of the French [[Legion of Honor]] and was awarded a medal of honor from the [[Paris Exposition of 1900]]; he also was granted honorary degrees from Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, and Columbia universities. He was a founding member of the [[U.S. Commission of Fine Arts]], serving from 1910 to 1915, including as chairman from 1912 to 1915.<ref>Luebke, Thomas E., ed., ''Civic Art:  A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts'' (Washington, D.C.:  U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013):  Appendix B, p. 544.</ref> 

In 1917, French and a colleague, [[Henry Augustus Lukeman]], designed the [[Pulitzer Prize]] gold medal presented to laureates. French designed the side of the prize with Benjamin Franklin on it, while Lukeman created the iconic design of the printing press and the wording on the award: "For disinterested and meritorious public service rendered by an American newspaper during the year….".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Homren |first=Wayne |date=April 11, 2004 |title=Pulitzer Secrets Revealed |journal=The E-Sylum |volume= 7 |issue= 15, art. 5 |url=http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v07n15a05.html |access-date=July 1, 2007}}</ref> In collaboration with [[Edward Clark Potter]] he modeled the [[George Washington]] statue, commissioned by a group that called itself "The Association of American Women for the Erection of a Statue of Washington in Paris" and unveiled in the Place d'Iena in Paris, France, in 1900; the [[Ulysses S Grant|General Grant]] statue in [[Fairmount Park, Philadelphia]], commissioned by the [[Association for Public Art]] (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association);<ref>{{cite book|last=Bach|first=Penny|title=Public Art in Philadelphia|publisher=Temple University Press| location = Philadelphia, PA | year = 1992| isbn = 0-87722-822-1|page=208}}</ref> and the [[equestrian statue of Joseph Hooker]] in Boston.

French was one of many sculptors who frequently employed [[Audrey Munson]] as a model; another frequent sitter was [[Hettie Anderson]]. Together with [[Walter Leighton Clark]] and others, he was also one of the founders of the Berkshire Playhouse,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.berkshireweb.com/culture/index.html|title=Arts & Entertainment In The Berkshires|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090628090109/http://www.berkshireweb.com/culture/index.html|archive-date=June 28, 2009}}</ref> which later became the [[Berkshire Theatre Festival]]. French's daughter, Margaret, also occasionally modeled for him, including for some of his rare portrait paintings, and became famous in her own right as a sculptor under the name [[Margaret French Cresson]].
In 1917, [[Harvard University|Harvard's]] citation in conferring an honorary [[Master of Arts]] referred to his statue of [[Ralph Waldo Emerson|Emerson]]{{clarify|date=October 2012}}<ref name="HarvAlumBull_EmersonStatue">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uibPAAAAMAAJ|title=Harvard Alumni Bulletin|date=January 1, 1916|publisher=Harvard Bulletin, Incorporated|via=Google Books}}</ref> when it called him "a sculptor, whose skillful hand, unlike that of the friend whom he portrayed, has not been stopped but spared to adorn our land by the creation of his art".<ref name=Crimson1984>Callan, Richard L. [http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1984/4/28/100-dears-of-solitude-pthe-john/ 100 Years of Solitude: John Harvard Finishes His First Century]. ''The Harvard Crimson''. April 28, 1984. Retrieved October 13, 2012</ref><ref name="HarvAlumBullv19">[https://books.google.com/books?id=uibPAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA740&dq=daniel%20chester%20french Harvard Alumni Bulletin v.19]</ref> French also taught; among his pupils was the sculptor [[Edith Howland]].<ref name="HellerHeller2013">{{cite book|author1=Jules Heller|author2=Nancy G. Heller|title=North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYxmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR11|date=December 19, 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-63882-5}}</ref>