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Daniel Chester French (April 20, 1850 – October 7, 1931)
Daniel Chester French was Born in Exeter, New Hampshire, but was brought up in Concord, Massachusetts. While living
in Concord, French met fellow Concord residents Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women). It
was Alcott who encouraged French to
pursue a career as an artist. He studied in Boston and New York, and in 1875 received his first commission for the
statue of the Minute Man that stands on the
green in Concord. That statue commemorates the battle of Lexington and Concord, and has become an American icon:
images of The Minute Man statue appeared on stamps, posters and war bonds during World War II.
A founder of the National Sculpture Society, French also collaborated with a number of the leading architects of
the time including Cass Gilbert and Charles McKim.
French's most celebrated sculpture (and arguably the best know sculture in America) is his marble statue
of a seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial (Washington, D.C.). The statue is 19 feet tall, weighs 175 tons,
and took four years to construct. The statue and was dedicated in 1922.
Other works by
French include the equestrian statues General Grant (1899, Philadelphia) and General Washington (1900, Paris),
and the Four Continents (1907, Customs House, New York City) French also created portrait busts and reliefs which
are said to "display a naturalistic style on an intimate scale".
French died in 1931 at the age of 81. His work has been woven into the fabric of America’s history, as he is regarded as
one of America’s most important sculptors. His final resting place can be found in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts, not far from the graves
of his famous friends Emerson and Alcott.
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