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Sculpture

Benediction

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Type
Sculpture(Opens in new tab)
Date
1922
Accession number
97.9
Maker
Daniel Chester French(Opens in new tab) (American, 1850–1931)
Dimensions
40 × 34 × 24 in. (101.6 × 86.4 × 61 cm.) base: 31 × 47 × 84 in. (78.7 × 119.4 × 213.4 cm.)
Medium
bronze
Description
Benediction was modeled in 1922, the same year Daniel Chester French's most well known sculpture—Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial—was dedicated. A sixteen-foot version of Benediction was to have been the centerpiece of a monument near St. Mihiel, France, honoring soldiers from Massachusetts who had died in the First World War. The shrouded, winged figure, a recurring image in French's work, would have hovered high above the recumbent figure of a soldier covered by an American flag, offering a final blessing. Neither the monument, designed by architect Henry Bacon (1866-1924) (also the architect of the Lincoln Memorial), nor the full-scale sculpture, was ever made, though four smaller versions of Benediction, including this one, are known to exist. Bacon's base for the sculpture has been executed here for the first time from the original plans. French studied in Boston and New York, and later in Florence and Paris. Though often selecting to sculpt allegorical subjects in the Neoclassical tradition, French also looked to the newer styles of late nineteenth-century European sculpture, which emphasized life-like forms, naturalistic movement, and lively surfaces. Over the course of his career, French would create a number of large public pieces, including the Minute Man, from 1874, in Concord, Massachusetts, and a series of four groups symbolizing various continents, from around 1905, in the United States Customs House, in New York City.
Credit
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation
Department
American Art
Find out more
View in the Art Museum catalog(Opens in new tab)
Benediction features a winged figure with her arms outstretched in a gesture of blessing. Though the generalized allegorical nature of the subject is part of a tradition of American Neoclassical sculpture, French's lively treatment of the surface of the bronze and emphasis on naturalism and movement show the influence of newer styles of late 19th-century European sculpture.

A 16-foot tall version of Benediction was to be the centerpiece of a monument in France honoring soldiers from Massachusetts who died in World War I. In French's design for the monument, the winged figure, which appeared in many of his works, blessed a recumbent soldier shrouded with an American flag. Neither the monument, designed by architect Henry Bacon, nor the larger version of French's sculpture were created. However, Bacon's base for the sculpture has been executed here from the original plans. Bacon and French later successfully collaborated on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., dedicated in 1922.

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