biography
| name: |
Borglum, (John) Gutzon (de la Mothe)
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pronunciation:
[baw(r)gluhm]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1867–1941)
|
| biography:
| Sculptor, born in St Charles, Bear Lake, Idaho Territory, USA. The son of Danish immigrants, he was raised in the West, and after college moved to California (1884), where he studied art and took up painting portraits. He met Jesse Benton Fremont, who sponsored his studies in Paris and Spain (1890–9), and after working in California and London (England) he settled in New York City (1901). By then he had turned to sculpture; his ‘Mares of Diomedes’ won a gold medal at the St Louis Exposition in 1904, and was the first American sculpture acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was soon winning commissions, including ‘The Twelve Apostles’ for the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City. Asked by the Daughters of the Confederacy to sculpt the head of Robert E Lee on Stone Mountain, GA, he designed an ambitious ensemble portraying Confederate leaders and hundreds of soldiers, but a disagreement led to his quitting in 1924 with only a few figures finished. (The project was revived in 1960.) He had already been asked by South Dakota to carve a ‘shrine of democracy’ there, and he chose Mt Rushmore. He began in 1927 and had finished the 60-foot head of George Washington by 1930, by which time the US Congress had authorized funds. An opinionated man, he feuded with the National Parks Service over money and procedures, but no one questioned his patriotism or energy. He had almost finished the other three heads by his death, and his son, Lincoln Borglum, completed some details shortly after. |
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