Oh, the sorts of properties real estate agents are asked to find!
In 1893, Ellis & Melledge received a request from sculptor George Thomas Brewster. Brewster wrote from the Mechanics Building in Boston, looking for studio space in Cambridge. His discussions about taking a studio owned by “Mr. Newell” didn’t work out because “the floor supports will not be strong enough to stand the weight of some large work that I shall want to commence soon…”
Brewster goes on to explain: “the clay alone will weigh from 3 to 4 tons and when the plaster mould [sic] is added it will make from 1 ½ to 2 tons extra.” About Mr. Newell’s studio, he “noticed that the supports for floor at the stairs are only nailed. Even if the cross beams were set into the sils [sic] they would not be heavy enough to support my work…”
Brewster finally settled on the studio of Cambridge sculptor William Clark Noble (1858-1938) at 46 North Ave, a building that is now demolished, but would be located at present-day 1607 Mass Ave at the intersection of Everett Street. The two sculptors undoubtedly knew each other and one another’s work as they were contemporaries. Both had worked in New York and specialized in monumental bronze memorial sculpture.
George T. Brewster
George T. Brewster was born in Kingston, Mass and was a descendent of William Brewster, after whom Brewster, Massachusetts is named. George studied at the Normal Art School in Boston and the Ecole des Beaux in Paris, and later taught life drawing classes at the Art Students League in New York and at the Cowles Art School in Boston. Brewster was a prolific sculptor of war memorials, cemetery memorials, and portraits.
In late 1893, Brewster entered a competition to design a Civil War monument in the Forest Dale Cemetery in Malden. He won the commission, and it is likely that this was the reason he was looking for studio space in Cambridge. His winning design was of “an heroic figure of a woman who will stand as a symbol of the valor by women during the struggle for freedom.”
“…the left hand grasps the now useless sword, the right holds the laurel crown ready to be set upon the head of the victors. A spiked cannon is under her left foot, a soldier’s cap and other accessories strewn about signify that war is over, that no more will the rampant hand of bitterness and death sweep over our land, that the armies have disbanded and that the spirit of woman, so sincere and earnest in the success of the sacred cause, now just as earnestly proclaims that peace is on earth and that good will must prevail towards men.”
Monumental News, July 1895
The dedication took place in Malden on Labor Day, 1894. The following year, Brewster’s plaster casts of five American poets were on display in J. F. Olsson’s art supply store in Harvard Square:
Other images of Brewster’s work include:
William Clark Noble
William Clark Noble was born in Maine in 1858. Legend has it that he was inspired to become a sculptor at the age of eight after reading the life story of the Danish sculptor Berthel Thorvaldsen.[ii] Noble studied under Richard Greenough, and by 1879, when he was only 21, he had relocated in Newport, Rhode Island. There, Noble designed a statue of William Ellery Channing and the Soldier’s and Sailor’s monument. He was a busy man! In 1892, Noble opened a studio in New York.[iii] At the same time, he had a studio in Cambridge at 46 North St. In 1893, when Brewster was trying to locate studio space, Noble’s statue of Robert Burns (destined for Rhode Island) was still at his studio on North Avenue.
Among Noble’s most famous monumental sculptures are the Phillips Brooks Monument in New York, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Congdon Park, Newport, Rhode Island, the portrait bust of Revolutionary General Potter, and Napoleon Bonaparte. Noble also took on smaller commissions, one example being a portrait bust of George Washington Carver:
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.
SOURCES
Catalogue of an exhibition of contemporary American sculpture held under the auspices of the National Sculpture Society; June 17-October 2, 1916. via HathiTrust.
Empire State Notables, 1914 New York, N.Y. : H. Stafford, [c1914]. Electronic reproduction. New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Libraries, 2008.
Forest Dale Cemetery GAR Monument, Massachusetts Civil War Monuments Project. https://macivilwarmonuments.com/tag/forest-dale-cemetery-gar-monument/.
Letter from George T. Brewster letter To Ellis/Melledge August 18, 1893. Ellis and Andrews Collection, Cambridge Historical Commission.
Monumental News, Vol. 7 No., 7, July 1895, pp. 419 http://quariesandbeyond.org/
Soldiers’ Monument, Malden, Massachusetts. George T. Brewster, Sculptor. In The Monumental News, vol. 7, no.7 July 1895, pp. 419. Lehman College Art Gallery.
“William Clark Noble” Invaluable. https://www.invaluable.com/artist/noble-william-clark-zueyvesacu/.
[i] https://macivilwarmonuments.com/tag/forest-dale-cemetery-gar-monument/
[ii] Lehman College Art Gallery: https://www.lehman.edu/vpadvance/artgallery/publicart/bio/noble.html
[iii] Lehman College Art Gallery: https://www.lehman.edu/vpadvance/artgallery/publicart/bio/noble.html
