Daniel Chester French: A Heritage of Beauty

"Death and the Young Warrior" by Daniel French

"At the age of eighty-one, Daniel French took to his bed more frequently than ever, repeatedly felled by unspecified illnesses. In September he suffered a heart attack, but stubbornly refusing to be hospitalized, remained at home to convalesce. 'Mr. French may live to a hundred, and I hope he does,' commented his neighbor, 'but when the end comes, he will be found still working, like the artist in his own beautiful piece which stands in the Metropolitan Museum called 'Death and the Sculptor.' In truth, French's working days at the studio had come to an end.

On October 6, 1931, the ailing old sculptor summoned the strength to leave his bed while a nurse changed the sheets. He used the opportunity to glance out the window to take in the splendid view that had first enthralled him four decades earlier: his long-inspiring Chesterwood realm, so rich in memories of creative accomplishment and family happiness. The next morning Daniel Chester French died - as customary with him, without further word - in his sleep.

The funeral took place on Sunday, October 11, in the flower-bedecked Chesterwood studio, with his sculptures serving as a backdrop, and several of his plaster models arranged beside his coffin. Most conspicuous of all was his beckoning angel 'The Genius of Creation,' its hands outstretched toward the bier as if in blessing. Nearby stood the large model for the enthroned Lincoln, with French's many medals and awards arrayed at its base. To another side rested an unfinished bust in clay of Daniel Webster, with the working tools just as he had left them the last day he was in the studio.

During the memorial service, Frank Stockbridge read a poem he had composed to honor his friend:

'Where the great craftsmen stand
Close to the Throne -
Ageless the Sculptor's hand,
Flawless the stone -
There shall these hands work on
For work's pure joy alone,
Find in Celestial stone
Beauty unknown.'

French's onetime model, Rosalie Miller, whose musical studies the sculptor had helped to fund, then sang two hymns, ending with Schubert's 'Rest in Peace.' Afterwards, French's ashes returned to Concord for interment at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where his 'Melvin Memorial' still stood. The gravestone was simple. Beneath a laurel wreath designed by his daughter, just four words were inscribed: 'A Heritage of Beauty.'"

(Excerpts from "Monument Man: The Life & Art of Daniel Chester French" by Harold Holzer.)