Paul Howard Manship

Paul Howard Manship 1885-1966, American sculptor, b. St. Paul, Minn., studied at St. Paul Institute of Arts, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the American Academy at Rome. He often went to classical mythology for his subjects. His art is notable for its emphatic musculature and polished contours. Among his works are Prometheus (Rockefeller Center, New York City); Centaur and Dryad, Little Brother, and Pauline (Metropolitan Mus.); and Indian and Pronghorn Antelope and Dancer and Gazelles (Art Inst., Chicago). He received many awards and was a member of the Legion of Honor.

Bibliography: See biography by J. P. Manship (1989).

Manship, Paul (b St Paul, Minn., 25 Dec. 1885; d New York, 31 Jan. 1966). American sculptor, active mainly in New York. He worked in an elegant, streamlined style, his beautifully crafted figures characterized by clarity of outline and suave generalized forms, and he achieved great success as a sculptor of public monuments. One of his best-known works is the gilded bronze Prometheus (1933) in Rockefeller Center Plaza, New York. Manship was also an excellent portraitist. Because of the stylization of his work, derived partly from his interest in archaic sculpture, he had for a time a reputation as a pioneer of modern sculpture in America, but his modernism was fairly superficial and by about 1940 he was being labelled an academic artist.

Manship, Paul (1885–1966). American sculptor, active mainly in New York. He worked in an elegant, streamlined style, his beautifully crafted figures characterized by clarity of outline and suave generalized forms, and he achieved great success as a sculptor of public monuments. One of his best-known works is the gilded bronze Prometheus (1933) in Rockefeller Center Plaza, New York. Manship was also an excellent portraitist. Because of the stylization of his work, derived partly from his interest in archaic sculpture, he had for a time a reputation as a pioneer of modern sculpture in America, but his modernism was fairly superficial and by about 1940 he was being labelled an academic artist.