Lee (O) Lawrie - Commissions related to Goodhue, Other Commissions, Photographs

Sculptor, born in Rixdorf, Germany. When very young he and his family emigrated to Chicago. He became an assistant to Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1894) and attended Yale (1910 BFA), where he later taught (1908–18). He was based in Easton, MD and became known for his many architectural sculptures, such as the bronze ‘Atlas’ at the International Building, Radio City, NY (c.1939).

Lee Oscar Lawrie (October 16, 1877 - January 23, 1963) was one of the United States' foremost architectural sculptors and a key figure in the American art scene preceding World War II.

It was Lawrie's collaborations with Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Goodhue that brought him to the forefront of architectural sculptors in America.

Commissions related to Goodhue

the Chapel at West Point, West Point, New York (Cram and Goodhue) the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, New York City (Cram and Goodhue) St. Bartholomew's Church (New York), (Cram and Goodhue) the reredos at Saint Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City (Cram and Goodhue) the Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln, Nebraska (Goodhue) the Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles, California (Goodhue) the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago (Goodhue) Trinity English Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana (Goodhue) large relief panels for the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington, D.C. Phillip)

After Goodhue's death, Lawrie went on to produce important and highly visible work under Raymond Hood at Rockefeller Center in New York City, but by November 1931 Hood made it known that "There has been entirely too much talk about the collaboration of architect, painter and sculptor," and relegated Lawrie to the role of a decorator.

Paradoxically, Lawrie's most recognizable work is not architectural -- it's the freestanding Atlas statue on Fifth Avenue at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Other Commissions

Other Lawrie commissions include:

the allegorical relief panels called Courage, Patriotism and Wisdom over the entry doors to United States Senate chamber (done as part of the 1950 Federal-period remodelling of the Senate), Washington, D.C. the Harkness Memorial Tower at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut the Beaumont Memorial Tower at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan the Bok Singing Tower in Mountain Lake, Florida

Photographs

Wisdom - Relief sculpture above the main entrance to the GE Building, Rockefeller Center, NYC	Atlas, Rockefeller Center, NYC	US of A stamp featuring Lawrie's Atlas	Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Bridge, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Ramsey County Court House, St. Paul, Minnesota	Bertram G Goodhue, Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois	Figure from Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Ramsey County Court House, St. Paul, Minnesota
Commerce, Rockefeller Center, NYC	The Sower, figure on top of the Capitol Building, Lincoln Nebraska	Capitol Building, Lincoln Nebraska