Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French was a famous sculptor from the United States. He is probably best known for his figure of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. He was one of five artists to be depicted on a series of U.S. postage stamps in the 1940s honoring famous Americans.
In New York City, French is credited with the statue of the Marquis de Lafayette in Prospect Park, the memorial to Richard Morris Hunt in Central Park, the statue of Alma Mater at Columbia and the seated figures Brooklyn and Manhattan that were part of the Manhattan Bridge but are now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. Also, not for nothing, French made a statue of Lincoln at the Nebraska State Capitol and the figure of Lady Wisconsin atop the Wisconsin State Capitol.
French worked for a time in the studio of the famous sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward. He is also known for his design in 1917 of the Pulitzer Prize gold medal that is presented to laureates.
French was a founding member of the National Sculpture Society, and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Design, the American Academy of Arts and Letters and several other groups.
French was born April 20, 1850, in Exeter, N.H. He died Oct. 7, 1931, and is buried in in Concord, Mass.
