2004 Anl.Proj.Rpt

PENNSYLVANIA CAPITOL PRESERVATION COMMITTEE Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee Room 630 Main Capitol Building Harrisburg, PA 17120 717-783-6484 • Fax: 717-772-0742 http://cpc.state.pa.us 2004 ANNUAL PROJECT REPORT Preserving aPalace of Art © 1/2005 CPC-017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . 1 “ARCHITECTURE” BY WILLIAM BRANTLEY VAN INGEN Featured Capitol Artists. 2 Chairman’s Message and Committee Member Listing . 6 The Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee Committee Projects . 8 Historic Timeline—On This Day In History. 11 proudly pr esents the four th in our special series of annual Pennsylvania’s Civil War Treasures . 16 project reports leading up to the 2006 celebration of the rotunda Exhibition: “Capitol Artists”. 24 History Under Foot—The Capitol’s Moravian Tile Pavement. 30 Capitol’s 100th Anniversary. special events and awards . 32 An enor mous amount of talent went into creating the preserving pennsylvania’s rare books . 36 artwork that adorns the Pennsylvania State Capitol. Our Lost and Found. 38 Gifts and Collectibles. 42 2004 report pays tribute to five of the Capitol artists—each Mission Statement. 46 of whom in his or her own way contributed to the beauty of the Gifts and Collectibles Order Form. 47 Photography Credits. 48 Capitol, and the great history of our Commonwealth. 1 FF EATUREDEATURED CC APITOLAPITOL AA RTISTSRTISTS dwin Austin Abbey was one of the Capitol murals at his studio in England. By eorge Grey Bar nard was a in the building of The Cloisters, which was most celebrated artists of his day . spring 1908 Abbey completed the rotunda sculptor hailed as the later purchased by John D. Rockefeller and Born in Philadelphia, he briefly murals, which were exhibited at the Michelangelo of his time. Born donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. studied at the Pennsylvania University of London. They received the in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, his The Capitol groups were finished in EAcademy of the highest acclaim as King Edward VII himself Gfamily moved to the Midwest where from a 1910, shipped from France to Harrisburg for Fine Arts under expressed regret that these magnificent young age Barnard was interested in creating installation, and officially unveiled on Christian paintings were leaving England. In 1909 form with his hands. At age nineteen, Barnard October 4, 1911. They represent a significant Schuessele. the rotunda murals were shipped to enrolled in the Chicago Art Institute and component of his artistic evolution. Barnard Before he was Harrisburg and placed encountered the works of the Renaissance said “in that plan I had concentrated a life twenty years at the collar of the master Michelangelo, who henceforth became of study and thought.” At his request, George old, Abbey interior dome. his idol and source of inspiration. Grey Barnard enjoyed a When Within a year , Barnard had sold a was buried in brilliant career Abbey died portrait bust of a child for $300, and set off for Harrisburg to as an illustrator suddenly Paris to advance his artistic training. He be near to what of poetry and in 1911, his studied four years at the Ecole des Beaux- he considered drama for Harper’s widow admin- Arts. At the Ecole, he lived in impoverished his finest work. Weekly. In the late istered the conditions as a recluse totally obsessed with 1870s Abbey left completion and his sculpting—a fur ther analogy to his for England to installation Renaissance counterpart. pursue a career as of the House Barnard’s first patron was Alfred a lar ge-scale histor y Chamber murals. Corning Clark of Singer Manufacturing painter. While there The artist had Company fame. Clark commissioned several he was elected to the completed three monumental sculptur es until his death in Royal Academy and works; a fourth 1896. After experiencing financial dif ficulties, admitted to the elite had been partially it wasn’t until 1902 that Bar nard’s career was artistic circle of the complete and was revived with the commission for the sculptural Pre-Raphaelites. finished by Er nest groups at the Pennsylvania Capitol. As a r esult of his gr owing r eputation, Board, a member of Barnard acquired a love of art Abbey was invited by American sculptor Abbey’s studio, under the supervision of John from the Middle Ages during his Auguste Saint-Gaudens in 1890 to produce what Singer Sargent. Only one mural had been years in France spent working on would become his most famous commission, the executed for the Senate Chamber entitled, the Capitol gr oups. He mural cycle “The Quest for the Holy Grail,” for “The Camp of the American Army at V alley spent much of his the McKim, Mead, and White Boston Public Forge, Febr uary 1778.” Completed in 1910, spare time collecting Library, which was completed in 1901. this painting had originally been placed in the medieval sculpture. In fact, he In 1902 Abbey received his largest Senate Chamber . As a result of Abbey’ s was able to pay for some of the supplies needed commission—decorating the r otunda and untimely death, it was r emoved and hung on to complete the Capitol sculptures by selling House, Senate, and Supreme Court Chambers the north wall in the rear of the House antiques to wealthy patrons in the states. in the Pennsylvania Capitol. He executed the Chamber where it remains today. Barnard’s years of collecting eventually resulted 2 3 enry Chapman Mercer County to learn all about clays, glazes, and Collier’s Illustrated W eekly, Everybody’s M agazine, commissions to paint murals in the Library of was born in Doyles- kilns. In 1899 Mercer built the Moravian St. Nicholas , and Woman’s Home Companion . Congress in W ashington, D.C., New Jersey town,Pennsylvania Pottery and T ile Works, which still operates in Oakley also gained reputation as a talented State Capitol, U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, and and attended Harvard Doylestown today. stained glass designer. federal buildings in Chicago and Indianapolis. UniversityH and the University of By 1900 Mercer had become an important In 1902 Pennsylvania Capitol architect Van Ingen was awarded the Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Law School. figure in the Arts and Crafts movement Joseph Huston asked Oakley to paint thirteen State Capitol commission in 1902, and chose to Although he was admitted in America. In 1903 he received his largest murals for the Governor’ s Reception Room. represent Pennsylvania’s religious development to the Philadelphia bar , commission—tiling the first floor of the Huston believed that choosing Oakley would through fourteen painted murals that reside in Mercer never practiced Pennsylvania Capitol. The approximately 16,000 “act as an encouragement of women and the the lunette spaces of the Capitol’ s first floor law but turned his interests square feet of tiles include nearly 400 mosaics State.” Oakley’ s commission signified a south corridor . He also designed the twenty- towards a career in that run chronologically from Indian activities milestone in American art history as the largest four circular opalescent stained glass windows pre-historic archaeology. and artifacts to more modern devices like public commission given to a woman up to that located in the House and Senate Chambers, From 1894 to 1897, automobiles and the telephone. Interspersed time. It also allowed her to transcend the which symbolize Pennsylvania’ s history , art, Mercer was Curator of throughout these figurative inlays are mosaics conventional female roles of portrait and genre science, and industry. American and Pre-historic representing Pennsylvania’ s native flora painters, and to pursue a successful career in the After receiving a commission from Archaeology at The and fauna. prestigious, but overwhelmingly masculine field financier, Charles T. Yerkes to make a Japanese University of Pennsylvania of mural decoration. room for his New Y ork residence, V an Ingen Museum, Philadelphia. A iolet Oakley knew Oakley received much publicity through- visited Japan and made extensive studies in turning point in his life came from an early age out her work on the Governor’ s Reception Japanese art. He also painted murals for private in 1897 upon seeing a jumble that she wanted to Room. The murals won her the Gold Medal of residences in Philadelphia. of old agricultural tools and be an artist. She Honor from the Pennsylvania Academy of the During 1937-1938, under a Depression- household utensils for sale. developedV her talent by studying Fine Arts in 1905, making her the first woman to era grant fr om the federal government’ s Works Mercer realized how quickly at the Art Students League in receive this distinction. Progress Administration, V an Ingen created American pr e-industrial Philadelphia and various After Edwin Austin Abbey’ s death in more than 4,500 square feet of murals for the history was being destroyed institutions abr oad during 1911, Oakley r eceived the commission to com- University at Albany in Hawley Hall. by the modernization of her summer vacations. Much plete the contract for the Senate and Supr eme Although best known the world. He began to of her talent was Court Chambers. She painted a total of forty- for his ar tistic accom- “rummage the bake-ovens, fostered through self- three murals for the Pennsylvania Capitol. plishments, V an Ingen wagon-houses, cellars, haylofts, directed lear ning was also a str ong smoke houses, chimney-corners, and by studying and illiam Brantley V an Ingen advocate of pr eserving garrets” for what historians would later copying the old was born in Philadelphia and New Y ork’s public call “Americana.” masters. studied at the Pennsylvania parklands. He lectured Mercer collected all kinds of American Oakley’s family Academy of the Fine Arts as a and wrote on the artifacts and tools from hoes and forks to plows moved to Philadelphia in pupilW of Thomas Eakins and Christian topic and ser ved and potter y.

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