Lorado Taft
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Lorado Zadoc Taft (April 29, 1860–October 30, 1936) was an American sculptor, writer and educator, born in Elmwood, Illinois in 1860. After being homeschooled by his parents, Taft earned his bachelor’s degree (1879) and master’s degree (1880) from the University of Illinois where his father was a professor of Geology. The same year he left for Paris to study sculpture. In Paris he attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he studied with Augustin Dumont, Jean Marie Bienaimé (Bonnassieux) and Jules Thomas. Upon returning to the United States in 1886 he settled in Chicago (although he continued to have a connection to the University of Illinois in Urbana for most of the rest of his life) and begun teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago, a post he was to remain at until 1929.
In 1892, while the art community of Chicago was all in a twitter about preparing for the World Columbian Exposition of 1893 head architect Daniel Burnham expressed concern to Taft that the sculptural adornments to the buildings might not be finished on time. Taft asked if he could employ some of his female students as assistants (women as sculptors were not an accepted reality at that time) for the Horticultural Building, Burnham responded with the classic reply, ‘Hire anyone, even white rabbits if they’ll do the work." From that arose a group of talented women sculptors who were to retain the name, "the White Rabbits." These included Enid Yandell, Carol Brooks MacNeil, Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Janet Scudder, and Julia Bracken. Later another former student, Francis Loring was to note that Taft was to use his students’ talents to further his own career, a not uncommon observation by students regarding their teachers. In general, history has given Taft credit for helping advancing the status of women as sculptors.
In 1903 Taft published The History of American Sculpture, the first survey of the subject and a work that Taft is better known for (except perhaps in Chicago) than his many sculptures. His revised version, published in 1925, was to remain the standard reference on the subject until Wayne Craven published "Sculpture in America" in 1968.
As he grew older his eloquent speaking skills and compelling writing led Taft, along with Frederick Ruckstull to the forefront of sculpture’s conservative ranks, where he often served as a spokesperson against the modern and abstract tendencies that developed in sculpture during his lifetime.
Lorado Taft was a member of the National Sculpture Society and exhibited at both their 1923 and 1929 shows. Today Taft is best remembered for his various fountains.
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[edit] Selected works
- Black Hawk (chief) Monument, Oregon IL
- Soldiers Monument, Oregon, IL
- Fountain of Time, Chicago. IL
- Fountain of the Great Lakes, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL
- Two Groups, Louisiana State Capitol, Baton Rouge, LA
- Columbus Fountain, Washington D.C.
- Graves Memorial, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, IL 1909
- Lawson Monument, the Crusader, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, IL 1931
- Thatcher Memorial Fountain, Denver CO
- Defense of the Flag, Jackson MI
- William A. Foote Memorial, Jackson, MI
- Lincoln the Orator, Urbana, Illinois
- Alma Mater, University of Illinois
[edit] Fountain of Time
After more than a dozen year of work Taft's Fountain of Time was unveiled at the west end of Chicago's Midway Plaisance in 1922. Based on poet Austin Dobson's lines: "Time goes, you say? Ah no, Alas, time stays, we go." the fountain shows a cloaked figure of time observing the stream of humanity flowing past.
 Fountain of Time, Chicago, IL |
 Fountain of Time, Chicago, IL |
 Fountain of Time, Chicago, IL |
 Fountain of Time, Chicago, IL |
 Fountain of Time, Chicago, IL |
 Fountain of Time, Chicago, IL |
[edit] Pioneer & Patriot Groups for the Louisiana State Capitol Building
The last major commission that Taft was to complete in his life was two groups for the front entrance to the Louisiana State capitol Building, dedicated in 1932.
 The Patriots |
 The Patriots |
 The Pioneers |
 The Pioneers |
 The Patriots |
 The Pioneers |
[edit] Sources
Bach, Ira and Mary Lackritz Gray, Chicago’s Public Sculpture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1983
Barnard, Harry, This Great Triumvirate of Patriots – The inspiring Story behind Lorado Taft’s Chicago Monument to George Washington, Robert Morris and Haym Solomon, Follett Publishing, Chicago Illinois 1971
Contemporary American Sculpture, The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, San Francisco, The National Sculpture Society 1929
Craven, Wayne, Sculpture in America, Thomas Y. Crowell Co, NY, NY 1968
Exhibition of American Sculpture Catalogue, 156th Street of Broadway New York, The National Sculpture Society 1923
Garvey, Timothy J., Public Sculptor – Lorado Taft and the Beautification of Chicago, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois 1988
Goode, James M. The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington D.C. 1974
Kubly, Vincent, The Louisiana Capitol-Its Art and Architecture, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna 1977
Kvaran,, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture of America, unpublished manuscript
Lanctot, Barbara, A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery, Chicago Architecture Foundation, Chicago, IL 1988
Opitz, Glenn B, Editor, Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie NY, 1986
Rubenstein, Charlotte Streifer, American Women Sculptors, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston 1990
Scheinman, Muriel, A Guide to the Art of the University of Illinois, University of Illinois Press, Urbana 1995
Taft, Lorado, History of American Sculpture, The MacMillan Company, NY, NY 1925
Taft, Lorado, Modern Tendencies in Sculpture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1921
Weller, Allen Stuart, Lorado in Paris – the Letters of Lorado Taft 1880 – 1885, University of Illinois Press, Urbana Illinois 1985
