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Title
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1930 PAFA Press Release
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Format
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PDF
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Rights
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Digitized archival materials are accessible for purposes of education and research. We have indicated what we know about copyright and rights of privacy, publicity, or trademark.
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Publisher
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The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts' Archives
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Language
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English
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Rights Holder
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The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
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The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
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extracted text
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For re leas e on or af t er Sunday January 19 / I
q~D
The first comprehensive exhibition of work by the noted American
sculptor Charles Grafly will be opened in tribute to his memory at
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Broad and Cherry Streets,
Philadelphia, coincidently with the 125th annual exhibition of oil
paintings and sculpture on Sunday, January 26th.
Preceded by a
pri va te view on Sa turday evening, January 25th. -
Ma.h(!h 1&
!
I
q :5 ()
The exhibition will include in addition to the portrait busts
for which Mr. Grafly was internationally famous, such hitherto unexhibited pieces as the large working model for the Meade Memorial,
official gift of the State of Pennsylvania to the National Capital;
the working model for the Pioneer Mother monument of San Francisco;
and the working models for the Fountain of Man created for the Pan
American Exposition.
The work of Charles Grafly is significant both in itself, and
in the influence that it has exerted upon the rising generation of
young sculptors in America, many of whom came under Grafly's ,tutelage
and passed from that instruct i on to cla i m such honors as the Prix
de Rome, and the Guggenheim Fellowship .
In point of period, Grafly's activity coincided with the rapid
cultural growth of America, and swept through the years of American
international expositions from the Columbian World's Fair of 1893 in
which he won a medal, through the Pan-American Exposition of 1901,
the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904, the Panama-Pacific Exposition of
1915, and the Sesqui-centennial Exposition of 1926.
All these great
gatherings he served as exhibitor, and was either a successful con testant for high honors, or else hors de concours as a member of the
International Jury of Selection.
Always enthusiastic in giving his aid and his name to art movements 1n the United States, he became a member of the Municipal Art
•
Jury of Philadelphia at its inception in 1912 when the art jury idea
was in its first experimental stages, and continued in its service
until the time of his tragic death May 5, 1929.
As an artist Grafly was honored in France, where he studied under
Chapu, Dampt, Bouguereau and Fleury, before America discovered him.
In 1890 he won honorable mention in the Paris Salon for his head of
"Daedalus" included, among other early works, in the present memorial
exhibition.
Ten years later he won a gold medal at the Salon of 1900.
His early success was founded upon a group of symbolic compositions, "Symbol of Life", "Generation to Generation", "In Much Wisdom",
and the heroic statues "Mauvais Presage" executed in his Paris studio,
and "Vulture of War".
Fame as a portraitist which later ranked him as among the great
sculptors of modern time, came with two portrait busts, one of his
mother and one of his wife.
These early successes are all shown in
the memorial exhibition.
As years passed Grafly was building up a notable series of
portrait busts of fellow artists which now constitutes a particularly
interesting group in the comprehensive exhibition, and includes the
busts of Thomas P. Anshutz, Edwin Swift Clymer, HUgh H. Breckenridge,
Joseph De Camp, Frank Duveneck, George Harding, Childe Hassam, William
M. Paxton, Edward W. Redfield and W. Elmer Schofield, painters all,
and that of Paul Wayland Bartlett, sculptor.
Grafly's life had its dramatiC and its romantiC side, and was
typically American.
He rose from humble surroundings to the prestige
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of one of the foremost American artists of his time.
Born in a small side street in
Philadelphia , the s on of a
.
shoemaker, tobacconist and
farme~,
he was destined by his father
to take up the life of the farm, but, in rebellion apprenticed
himself to Struther f s stone Yard in the city of his birth, and
there labored with what became the rudiments of an art education ,
further supPlemented by drawing at
~he
Spring Garden Institute,
and later by work in the painting and sculpture classes under
Thomas Eakins and Thomas Anshutz, at the Pennsylvania Academy of
the Fine Arts whence he journeyed to Paris, to be associated there
with such not ed Ame r ican artists as Robe rt Henri, A. Stirling
Calder, Cyrus E. Dallin and Edward W. Redfieldo
His final return to America in 1896 markeu the beginning
of his professional career, and he was soon engaged in the execution of large works of monumental character which, in addition to
work for various expositions, included the heroic statue of
General Reynolds for the Monumental Memorial in Fairmount Park ,
and the colossal busts of Admiral Porter and Mr. Gest for the
same st ruc t ure •
Charles Grafly won during his years of unbroken activity ·
virtually all the honors that are open to a sculptor in the United
States, as well as honors abroad.
The formidabl e list begins with
the honorable mention at the Paris Salon of 1891, honorable mention,
Temple Trust Fund, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 1892;
and continues with a medal at the Columbian Exposition of 1893;
silUer medal, Atlanta Exposition 1895; gold medal of honor ,
Pennsylvania Academy, 1899; gold med!l Paris Exposition 1900; gold
medal Pan- Amer i can Exposit i on 1901; gold medal, Charlest on Exposi-
tion, 1902; grand prize, Buenos Aires Exposition 1910; Widener
Memorial medal, Pennsylvania Academy 1913; Lea Prize for drawing,
Philadelphia Water Color Club, 1916; Watrous gold medal, National
Academy of Design, 1918; Potter Palmer gold medal, 1921; Chicago
Art Institute; Medal of Honor, Concord Art Association, 1922.
The present memorial exhibition includes in addition to bronzes,
plasters, marbles, working models, preliminary ideas for monumental
designs, portrait busts and symbolic groups a collection of the pureline drawings of the human figure for which Grafly was noted as a
draught sman.
An unusual and interest ing feature of the exhibit ion is the
grouping together with the final working model for a particular
monument the many preliminary designs that preceded the permanent
achiev~~e~+.
Student and art lover may thus study the evolution of
a work of art from its first inception to its completed form, as in
the case of the Pioneer Mother Monument and the Meade Memorial.
In his art career Grafly touched virtually all the great
centers of the native land he loved, and was associated at various
times and in various capacities with such cities as New York, Boston,
Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, st. Louis and San Francisco.
His death, which terminated a career in its full maturity ,
came as a result of a hit-run automobile
a~cident,
Charles Grafly
was, at the time, serving his thirty-seventh year as head of the
sculpture department at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
and his twelfth year in a ·s imilar capacity at the the School of the
Muse.um of Fine Arts, Boston.
He was a member of the Nat ional Sculpture Soc iety, Nat ional
Academician of the National Academy of Design, a member of the
New york Architectural League, Art Club, and Sketch Club of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Art Alliance; National Institute of Arts and
Letters; The Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts; and the Municipal Art Jury of Philadelphia.
He is represented in the permanent collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; City Museum of St. Louis;
carnegie Inst itute, Pittsburgh; Boston Museum of Fine Arts;
Cincinnati Museum and . the Peabody Institute of Baltimore.
.
Three
of his portrait busts, those of Eads, Edwards and John Paul Jones,
the latter executed after the portrait by Houdon, a French master
portraitist
whom Grafly greatly admired, are also to be found in
the Hall of Fame of New York University, New York City.
