James Earle Fraser (November 4, 1876 – October 11, 1953) was an American
sculptor during the first half of the 20th century. His work is integral to many of
Washington, D.C.'s most iconic structures.[1]
As a child, James Fraser was exposed to
frontier life and the experience of
Native Americans, who were being pushed ever further west or confined to
Indian reservations. These early memories were expressed in many of his works, from his earlier trials, such as the bust Indian Princess,[4] to his most famous projects, such as End of the Trail and the
Indian Head (Buffalo) nickel.
Among his earliest works were sculptural pieces at the
World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and, for the
1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, one of his most famous pieces, End of the Trail. Also for the San Francisco Exposition, Fraser created a "mate" to "End of the Trail," called "The Pioneer". While both were meant to be cast in bronze, material shortages due to
World War I prevented this. After the Exposition, the original plaster statues were moved to
Mooney's Grove Park in
Visalia, CA. Exposed to the elements, they slowly deteriorated. "The Pioneer" was destroyed in an earthquake, while "End of the Trail" was obtained by the
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 1968 and restored. The restored statue is currently on display in the entryway of the
Oklahoma City museum, and the original that sat in Visalia, CA, was replaced with a bronze replica. The
original bronze replica is located in Shaler Park, in
Waupun, Wisconsin. The statue was commissioned by inventor and sculptor
Clarence Addison Shaler and donated to the City of Waupun on June 23, 1929.[6]
Fraser’s major works include two heroic bronze equestrian statues titled The Arts of Peace, designed for the entrance to the
Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, behind the
Lincoln Memorial. The pair was a companion to sculptor
Leo Friedlander's The Arts of War, installed immediately to the south at the east end of
Arlington Memorial Bridge. The groups had been designed in the 1930s but were not cast until the 1950s, because of a shortage of metals during World War II.
Muralist
Barry Faulkner, a friend of Fraser’s from their days in Paris together described Fraser like this:
"His character was like a good piece of Scotch tweed, handsome, durable and warm." [see Wilkonson, References]
Fraser's papers and those of his wife, sculptor
Laura Gardin Fraser, are held at the Special Collections Research Center at
Syracuse University Library,[8] the Smithsonian
Archives of American Art, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.[9]
James Earle Fraser died on October 11, 1953, at Westport, Connecticut, and is buried in
Willowbrook Cemetery.[10]
^Thomas E. Luebke, ed., Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 544.
^The Interallied Victory Medals of World War I by Alexander J. Laslo, Dorado Publishing, Albuquerque. 1986 Edition
Sources
Armstrong, Craven, et al., 200 Years of American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of Art, NYC, 1976
Bock, Richard W., Memoirs of an American Artist, ed. Dorathi Bock Pierre, C.C. Publishing Co., Los Angeles CA 1991
Craven, Wayne, Sculpture in America, Thomas Y. Crowell Co, NY, NY 1968
Freundlich, A.L.,The Sculpture of James Earle Fraser, Universal Publishers /
uPublish.com USA 2001
Goode, James M. The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1974
Gurney, George, Sculpture and the Federal Triangle, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1985
Krakel, Dean, End of the Trail: the Odyssey of a Statue, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma 1973
Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture in America, unpublished manuscript
McSpadden, J. Walker, Famous Sculptors of America, Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc. New York 1924
National Sculpture Society, Contemporary American Sculpture, The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, San Francisco, The National Sculpture Society 1929
Neuhaus, Eugen, E., Art of the Exposition, Paul Elder and Company, San Francisco 1915
Reynalds, Donald Martin, Masters of American Sculpture: The Figurative Tradition From the American Renaissance to the Millennium, Abbeville Press, NY 1993
Taft, Lorado, The History of American Sculpture, MacMillan Co., New York, NY 1925
Wilkinson, Burke, and David Finn, photographs, Uncommon Clay: The Life and Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, San Diego 1985