James Earle Fraser - Life and career, Public monuments, Images

Sculptor, born in Winona, Minnesota, USA. He lived in the Dakota territory, Minneapolis, and Chicago, where he sculpted ‘The End of the Trail’ (1894), a popular image of the American Indian. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris (1895–9), was an assistant of Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1898–1902), and settled in New York (1902). He created many public monuments and designed medallions and coins, including the buffalo nickel (1913).

James Earle Fraser (November 4, 1876 – October 11, 1953) was an American sculptor, born in Winona, Minnesota.

Thomas Fraser, James' father, being one of the Anglo-Americans closest to the event (he was surveying Yellowstone at the time), was part of a group sent out to recover the remains of the 7th Cavalry following General George Armstrong Custer's debacle at Little Bighorn on June 15, 1876, just a few months before Fraser's birth.

Life and career

Fraser began following his chosen path by carving figures from pieces of limestone scavenged from a stone quarry close to his home near Mitchell, South Dakota.

In 1895 Bock helped his assistant gain admission to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where Fraser worked under well-known French sculptor Alexandre Falguière.

Having worked for Saint Gaudens for four years, Fraser left his master in 1902 and set up his own studio in New York, where he was to maintain a studio for over half a century.

It was for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915 that Fraser produced his most recognized work, the doleful "End of the Trail."

During the early years of the 20th century his style also changed from the impressionistic realism that he had inherited from Saint Gaudens to a more modern style, with smoother lines, less complicated silhouettes and less detailed surfaces.

Although by the 1930s Fraser’s style of realism was no longer in vogue and architectural sculpture was no longer called for, he nonetheless stayed in demand.

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]

Public monuments

Recumbent figure of Bishop Potter, St. John the Divine Cathedral, New York City, 1908 John Hay Memorial, Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio, 1916 Canadian Officer, Bank of Montreal, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1920 Symbolic figures, Elks Memorial, Chicago, Illinois, 1920 John Ericsson National Memorial, Washington, D.C., 1926 Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark, State Capitol, Jefferson City, Missouri, 1926 Abraham Lincoln, Jersey City, New Jersey and Syracuse, New York, 1930 Benjamin Franklin National Memorial, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1938 Equestrian Theodore Roosevelt, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West, New York City, 1940 Benjamin Franklin, Franklin Insurance Company, Springfield, Illinois, 1948 Thomas A. Authority of Law, Supreme Court Building, Washington D.C., 1935 attic figures of Merriweather Lewis, George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone and John James Audubon, American Museum of Natural History, New York City, 1940

Images

Elk's Memorial, Chicago.IL	Lincoln, Syracuse, NY	John Hay Memorial	Memorial to Thomas Edison, Dearborn, MI
Ericsson Memorial, Washington D.C.	Arts of Peace, Washington D.C.	National Archives Building, Washington D.C.	Guardianship, Washington D.C.
the Discoverers, Chicago, IL	the Pioneers, Chicago, IL	Benjamin Franklin, Springfield, IL	Authority of Law, Supreme Court Building, Washington D.C.
Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia, PA