George Grey Barnard

George Grey Barnard 1863-1938, American sculptor, b. Bellefonte, Pa. He studied engraving, then sculpture, first at the Art Institute of Chicago, then at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. A strong Rodin influence is evident in his early work, such as Two Natures (Metropolitan Mus.). In 1912 he completed several figures for the new state capitol at Harrisburg, Pa. A colossal statue of Lincoln, in 1917, was the subject of heated controversy because of its rough-hewn features and slouching stance. It is now in Manchester, England, and a replica is in Cincinnati. Interested in medieval art, Barnard gathered discarded fragments of Gothic works from French villages. He established this collection near his home in Washington Heights, New York City, in a building that he called the Cloisters . Others of Barnard's sculptures are The God Pan (Columbia Univ.), The Hewer (Cairo, Ill.), and Rising Woman and Adam and Eve (both: Rockefeller estate, at Pocantico Hills, N.Y.). At the time of his death he was at work on the 100-ft (30-km) Rainbow Arch, a memorial to peace.

Barnard, George Grey (1863–1938), Chicago sculptor, studied in France, where he achieved fame for his Two Natures (1894), an allegory of dual personality. Among his works are the colossal Hewer in Cairo, Ill.; the two large groups of nude figures symbolizing The Burden of Life and Brotherly Love and Work, which flank the entrance of the Pennsylvania state capitol; the gaunt, homespun Lincoln in Cincinnati; and an unfinished memorial arch to World War I soldiers. Although he had a tendency to moralize in stone, this did not destroy the courage and vigor with which he endowed his work. His collection of medieval sculpture and architectural material was purchased by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1925) and presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It forms the nucleus of The Cloisters, a museum of medieval art at New York.

Barnard, George Grey (1863–1938). American sculptor, an independent, original, and controversial figure. He was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and after studying briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago he moved to Paris in 1883. After years of hardship there he had a sensational success with his over-life-size marble group Struggle of the Two Natures in Man (Metropolitan Museum, New York), when it was exhibited at the Salon de la Nationale in 1894. In the same year he returned to the USA (against the advice of Rodin, to whom his vigorous style was much indebted) and settled in New York. Initially he made little impact there, but in 1902 he received the largest commission given to an American sculptor up to that date—a vast scheme of allegorical decorations for the Pennsylvania State Capitol at Harrisburg. He returned to France to work on this. In 1906 there was a scandal in Harrisburg over misuse of public funds, bringing payment to Barnard to an end, but he continued the project at his own expense and it was unveiled—on a much smaller scale than originally envisaged—in 1911. His final major work was a bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, set up in Lytle Park, Cincinnati, in 1917. It caused a furore; Barnard had attempted to show the national hero as an ordinary man in deep thought, but some thought it made him look like a ‘disshevelled dolt’ and Lincoln's son described the statue as ‘grotesque and defamatory'. However, it also had strong supporters, including the former President Theodore Roosevelt, who said ‘The greatest statue of our age has revealed the greatest soul of our age'. Controversy continued when it was proposed to erect a copy of the statue in Parliament Square, London; Epstein defended it against attack in a letter to the Daily Telegraph, describing Barnard (his former teacher) as ‘a very great sculptor'. Eventually it was a replica of Saint-Gaudens's statue of Lincoln that went to London, whilst a replica of the Barnard went to Manchester (it was unveiled in 1919 and is now in Lincoln Square). During his many years in France Barnard made a superb collection of medieval art; this was bought for the Metropolitan Museum, New York, in 1925 and forms the basis of its outstation, The Cloisters, opened in 1938. Barnard devoted his final years to a visionary project for a colossal Rainbow Arch (to be dedicated to the mothers of war dead), which he hoped to erect near The Cloisters.