Sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin (1861-1944) was born in Springville, Utah. As a child, Cyrus played with local Native American children and developed a deep respect for their culture (and a sympathy for their plight). During his fruitful career, he created a cycle of four Native American sculptural groupings (between 1890 and 1908). The fourth of these sculptures, called Appeal to the Great Spirit, inspired the pair of cast iron bookends shown above, made in the Twenties or Thirties.
At the age of 19, Dallin left Utah for Boston where he apprenticed under sculptor T.H. Bartlett. In Boston, he befriended sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens and painter John Singer Sargent. In time, Dallin travelled to Paris to study at the Académie Julian. When he returned to Massachusetts, he married and settled in Arlington where he raised three sons.
Appeal to the Great Spirit was cast in bronze in Paris in 1908 where it won a Gold Medal at the Paris Salon. In 1912, it was placed in the courtyard before the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The installation was intended to be temporary; it still stands there to this day.
Other copies were created by Dallin, in varying sizes and materials (bronze, plaster). And Dallin received other important commissions. His Paul Revere statue stands before the Old North Church in Boston ("One if by land, two if by sea"). And he sculpted The Angel Moroni which stands atop the spire of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. Initially, Dallin had turned-down this commission. Both his parents had been Mormons, though they had left the church before Cyrus was born. Cyrus, himself, was a Unitarian. However, he admitted that his work on the angel had brought him closer to God than any other project he had ever undertaken. This sculpture was later duplicated for use atop the spires of other Mormon temples.
Dallin was also an accomplished archer. He competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics, in St. Louis, where he medaled in the team competition (bronze, of course).
The bookends above, capture Dallin's most famous sculpture in cast iron. Click on the photo above to learn more about them.
More horse-themed bookends tomorrow and in the days to come.
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