Photo Courtesy of Chesterwood Archives, Chapin Library, Williams College, Gift of the National Trust for Historic Preservation / Chesterwood, a National Trust Historic Site, Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Meet some of the famous models who posed in French’s studios
Learn about the secret symbols hidden in the Four Continents and Alma Mater
Discover hidden gems, sculpted by French, now in NYC museums and cemeteries
Hear stories of French’s relationships with his assistants and colleagues, such as Evelyn Beatrice Longman and the Piccirilli family of marble carvers
See historical photos of French’s West 11th Street townhouse and MacDougal Alley studio
Top row and bottom left photos by Dana Pilson, Historical Photos Courtesy of Chesterwood Archives, Chapin Library, Williams College, Gift of the National Trust for Historic Preservation / Chesterwood, a National Trust Historic Site, Stockbridge, Massachusetts
About this Virtual Talk:
Join Chesterwood curatorial researcher Dana Pilson for a tour of New York through the eyes of American Renaissance sculptor Daniel Chester French. Most well-known for his seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, French lived in the West Village and worked out of a studio on MacDougal Alley. He spent winters in New York and summers at Chesterwood, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Toggling between his city and country studios, French created almost 100 public monuments and memorials, many of which are scattered throughout the metropolitan area.
This online tour will highlight major works such as the Richard Morris Hunt Memorial on Fifth Avenue, the allegorical figures of Manhattan and Brooklyn now at the Brooklyn Museum, and the monumental Four Continents installed outside the US Custom House at Bowling Green. We’ll also uncover some hidden gems tucked away at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New-York Historical, Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, and Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
Dana Pilson is the curatorial researcher and collections coordinator at Chesterwood, the historic home, studio, and gardens of American sculptor Daniel Chester French, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Dana has been working at Chesterwood for almost fifteen years and has curated exhibitions, written articles for a variety of publications, and has conducted extensive research on Daniel Chester French, Evelyn Beatrice Longman, and Margaret French Cresson. She also oversees Chesterwood’s permanent collection of sculpture, paintings, furniture, and decorative arts. Prior to relocating to the Berkshires she was a research assistant in the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has also worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Williams College Museum of Art. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from Dartmouth College and master’s degrees in art history from Boston University and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Works Pictured: Header Image & Top Center Collage Photo:Kinsley Memorial, [detail] Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx Top Left and Right Photos: Painting and Sculpture, Richard Morris Hunt Memorial Bottom Left Collage Photo:Africa, [side view] from the Four Continents, US Custom House Bottom Center Collage Photo: Lafayette Memorial dedication Bottom Right Collage Photo: Studio photo of the working model of Manhattan for the Manhattan Bridge
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