ASIAN GARDEN DECORATIONS

Ulysses S. Grant Memorial (Bronze)
Location: Union Square, on the east end of the National Mall at the base of the US Capitol Building

The Senate Park Commission’s 1902 plan to redesign the capital city, known as the McMillan Plan, envisioned Union Square as Washington’s Place de la Concorde (Paris), and the Grant Memorial is one of Washington’s most prominently placed memorials and the statue one of the largest and most important sculptures in the city. The central figure, an equestrian statue of General Grant, stands 40’ above a 252’ x 71’ marble plaza. Grant and his horse constitute the 2nd largest equestrian statue in the world, second only to the statue of Victor Emmanuel in Italy. The memorial’s thirteen
sculpted horses make it one of the most complex equestrian statues ever built, and its artist (Henry Merwin Shrady) was one of the most prolific equestrian sculptors of all time. The Lincoln Memorial and the Grant Memorial (both dedicated in 1922) were designed to anchor the east and west ends of the National Mall, intending to enshrine the Civil War for all time. Unfortunately, only the Lincoln Memorial achieved the intended prominence.

Overshadowing the Grant Memorial is the Capitol Building that looms behind it. First Street separates the Memorial from the Capitol, separating it from the city’s activity. In front of the Memorial, the reflecting pool separates it from the Mall. And, a challenge that the 1902 Senate Park Committee didn’t foresee was Grant’s diminishing popularity over time; while the mystique surrounding Lincoln has continued, Grant’s has fallen, further separating the Memorial from its intended grandeur.

Note: Grant’s funeral in 1885 drew more than one million mourners, making it one of the largest public gatherings in 19th century America. This great outpouring of public support at that time demonstrates how far from the public eye Grant has fallen, unlike Lincoln.

Twenty years in the making, the Grant Memorial uses no allegorical figures or symbolic markings to convey the Civil War. Instead, the face of war is showcased through richly detailed men and horses rushing to battle. Grant had only been dead two months when the debate over how to memorialize him began and how to portray a military hero whose foe had been his fellow Americans. It was decided that he “must be shown as a military victor” but with “no sestion in its groups or its tableaux or its bas-relief that he ever gained a battle in which the defeated army was composed of his countrymen in rebellion.” Another said, “The great end accomplished by his splendid services was not a victory over a foe, but reconciliation between brothers.” In 1885, during the encampment of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, Grant’s former command, the idea took root to honor Grant. The society voted to send members to lobby Congress for a memorial to the “victor of Vicksburg and Shiloh and the Wilderness.”

Eventually, Congressmen William Hepburn (IA) and David Mercer (NE) introduced legislation for a memorial, gaining an appropriation of $250,000, the largest amount set aside for a memorial up to that time. Within two weeks after funds were appropriated, the Grant Memorial Commission was up and running and artistic competitions were soon underway for a sculptor.

The Commission of the Memorial
Between March 1 and April 1, 1902, artists were asked to submit plans on a scale model of 1” to 1’. To be eligible to compete, artists were required to be American citizens and all casting would have to be done in the United States. There were no restrictions on the style or iconography on the work, but all submissions were required to represent “the character and individuality of the subject”. Twenty-three artists submitted twenty-seven models, which were displayed and judged in the basement of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The Grant Memorial Committee made their top three selections on April 7, 1902. Shrady’s model caught the attention of the Committee since it focused more on the realities of war than the others, which focused more on the themes of peace and reconciliation. However, the Committee was wary of Shrady’s ability to carry through on his design (he had very limited experience as a sculptor), and they asked both Shrady and the better known sculptor Charles Niehaus to compete in a second head-to-head round of judging by enlarging their models.

The competition between the two artists was fanned into a full-fledged drama that caught the public’s imagination with the artists themselves providing fuel for the papers. Niehaus berated Shrady’s previous attempts at sculpture, criticized the judges, and generally whined unmercifully about being put in competition with a relative novice. Niehaus’ letters to the judging committee made him look jealous and petty while Shrady’s correspondence with the committee was respectful. On October 1, 1902, the enlarged models went on display. Two months later th

Stopped in the middle of this one so that I would have something to upload for unfinished.

MSH July 2011 #6 - Unfinished