George Grey Barnard

His personal collection of medieval architectural fragments became a core part of The Cloisters in New York City.

George Grey Barnard studied at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Leger Eberle is recorded as having studied under George Grey Barnard. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is art of sculpture. Places of work recorded in the authority are Paris and New York City. Works named in the authority record are Struggle of the Two Natures in Man. Work by George Grey Barnard is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Carnegie Museum of Art.

• Name — George Grey Barnard • Born — 24 May 1863 • Birthplace — Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Died — 24 April 1938 • Place of death — New York City, U.S. • Field — Sculpture • Works — Struggle of the Two Natures in Man Pennsylvania State Capitol sculpture groups Abraham Lincoln (Cincinnati)

Barnard was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Kankakee, Illinois, the son of the Reverend Joseph Barnard and Martha Grubb; the grandson and namesake of merchant George Grey Grubb; and a great-grandson of Curtis Grubb, a fourth-generation member of the Grubb iron family and a onetime owner of the celebrated Gray's Ferry Tavern outside Philadelphia. Barnard first studied at the Art Institute of Chicago under Leonard Volk. The prize he was awarded for a marble bust of a Young Girl enabled him to go to Paris, where, over a period of three and half years, he attended the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1883–1887), while also working in the atelier of Pierre-Jules Cavelier. He lived in Paris for twelve years, and scored a great success with his first exhibit at the Salon of 1894. He returned to America in 1896, and married Edna Monroe of Boston. He taught at the Art Students League of New York from 1900 to 1903, succeeding Augustus Saint-Gaudens. He returned to France, and spent the next eight years working on his sculpture groups for the Pennsylvania State Capitol. He was elected an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 189x, and an academician in 1902. • Illustration — Barnard and Clare Sheridan touring his cloister in New York City, 1921. A strong Rodin influence is evident in his early work. His principal works include the allegorical Struggle of the Two Natures in Man" (1894, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York); The Hewer (1902, at Cairo, Illinois); The Great God Pan (1899, at Columbia University); the Rose Maiden (c.1902, at Muscatine, Iowa); the simple and graceful Maidenhood (1896, at Brookgreen Gardens). The Great God Pan (1899), one of the first works Barnard completed after his return to America, was originally intended for the Dakota Apartments on Central Park West. Alfred Corning Clark, builder of the Dakota, had financed Barnard's early career; when Clark died in 1896, the Clark family presented Barnard's Two Natures to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in his memory, and the giant bronze Pan was presented to Columbia University, by Clark's son, Edward Severin Clark. In 1911 he completed two large sculpture groups for the new Pennsylvania State Capitol: The Burden of Life: The Broken Law and Love and Labor: The Unbroken Law. Between the two groups, they feature 27 larger-than-life figures. His larger-than-life statue of Abraham Lincoln (1917) drew heated controversy because of its rough-hewn features and slouching stance. The first casting is at Lytle Park in Cincinnati, Ohio; the second in Manchester, England (1919); and the third in Louisville, Kentucky (1922). French art dealer René Gimpel described him in his diary (1923), as "an excellent American sculptor" who is "very much engrossed in carving himself a fortune out of the trade in works of art." Barnard had a commanding personal manner: "He talks of art as if it were a cabalistic science of which he is the only astrologer", wrote the unsympathetic Gimpel; "he speaks to impress. He's a sort of Rasputin of criticism. The Rockefellers are his imperial family. And the dealers court him." Interested in medieval art, Barnard gathered discarded fragments of medieval architecture from French villages before World War I. He established this collection in a church-like brick building near his home in Washington Heights, Manhattan in New York City. The collection was purchased by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1925 and forms part of the nucleus of The Cloisters collection, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At least one object, sold to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1924, he offered with misleading provenance. Barnard died following a heart attack on April 24, 1938, at the Harkness Pavilion, Columbia University Medical Center in New York. He was working on a statue of Abel, betrayed by his brother Cain, when he fell ill. He is interred at Harrisburg Cemetery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

• Illustration — Struggle of the Two Natures in Man (marble, 1892–1894), Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Illustration — The Prodigal Son (1904), Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky • Illustration — Statue of Abraham Lincoln (bronze, 1917), Lytle Park, Cincinnati, Ohio. • The Boy (marble, 1885), private collection • Cain (1886, destroyed) • Brotherly Love (Two Friends) (marble, 1886–87), Langesund, Norway. • Brotherly Love (bronze, 1886–87), Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts. • Brotherly Love (marble, 1894), Edward Severin Clark monument, Lakewood Cemetery, Cooperstown, New York. • Struggle of the Two Natures in Man (marble, 1892–1894), Metropolitan Museum of Art. • Maidenhood (Innocence) (1896), Brookgreen Gardens, Murrell's Inlet, South Carolina. Evelyn Nesbitt posed as the model. • Maiden with the Roses (Rose Maiden) (marble, 1898), Greenwood Cemetery, Muscatine, Iowa • Urn of Life (1898–1900), Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Created to hold the ashes of Metropolitan Opera conductor Anton Seidl. • The Mystery of Life (marble, 1895–1897), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show. • The Birth (marble, 1895–1897). Exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show. • Solitude (Adam and Eve) (marble, c.1906). Exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show. Marble versions are at the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, Ohio; the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia; and the Loeb Art Center in Poughkeepsie, New York. • The Great God Pan (1899), Dodge Hall Quadrangle, Columbia University, New York City. Exhibited at 1900 Paris Exposition, and the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. • Transportation – Henry Bradley Plant Fountain (1900), University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida • The Hewer (1902), Halliday Park, Cairo, Illinois, dedicated 1906. Exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. • A plaster version is at Schwab Auditorium, Pennsylvania State University, University Park. • A marble version is at Kykuit, Pocantico Hills, New York. • Architectural sculpture (1902–03), New Amsterdam Theatre, 214 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, New York City. Barnard's façade and roof garden sculptures were removed in 1937, and are unlocated. • The Prodigal Son (1904). One of the sculptures for Love and Labor: The Unbroken Law, at the Pennsylvania State Capitol. • The Prodigal Son (marble, 1904–1906), Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show. • The Prodigal Son (marble, 1904), Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky. • 2 pedimental sculpture groups: History; The Arts (1913–1917), Main Branch, New York Public Library, Manhattan • Rising Woman (marble, c.1916), Kykuit, Pocantico Hills, New York. • A plaster version is at Schwab Auditorium, Pennsylvania State University, University Park. • Statue of Abraham Lincoln (bronze, 1917), Lytle Park, Cincinnati, Ohio. • Abraham Lincoln (bronze, 1919 casting), Lincoln Square, Manchester, England • Abraham Lincoln (bronze, 1922 casting), Louisville, Kentucky. • Head of Abraham Lincoln (marble, 1919), Metropolitan Museum of Art. • Let There Be Light (bronze, c.1922), Isaac Wolfe Bernheim monument, Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, Clermont, Kentucky. • A 1928 marble replica marks the grave of Barnard's parents at Springdale Cemetery, Madison, Indiana. • A 1936 marble replica is at the entrance to Scripps Park, Rushville, Illinois. • Adam and Eve Fountain (1923) Kykuit, Pocantico Hills, New York. • The Refugee (Grief) (marble, by 1930), Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Illustration — Brotherly Love (1886–87), Langesund, Norway. • Illustration — Maidenhood (1896), Brookgreen Gardens. • Illustration — Urn of Life (1898-1900), Carnegie Museum of Art. • Illustration — The Great God Pan (1899), Columbia University, New York City • Illustration — Transportation - Henry Bradley Plant Fountain (1900), Tampa, Florida. • Illustration — Barnard at work on The Hewer (c.1902). • Illustration — Solitude (Adam and Eve) (1906), Taft Museum of Art. • Illustration — The Birth (1913). • Illustration — Abraham Lincoln (1919), Manchester, England. • Illustration — Let There Be Light (c.1922), Clermont, Kentucky.

George Grey Barnard is recorded as sculptor. Career and activity. Barnard worked in art of sculpture. He belonged to American Academy of Arts and Letters. He worked at Paris and New York City.