Daniel Chester French 1850 - 1931

Private Collection, New York, circa 1950
By descent in the family to the present owner, 1991

Lorado Taft, The History of American Sculpture, New York, 1903, pp. 312-15
Adeline Adams, Daniel Chester French: Sculptor, Boston, Massachusetts, 1932, pp. 15-16, illustration of another example p. 8
Wayne Craven, Sculpture in America, New York, 1968, pp. 393-4, fig. 119, illustration of another example
Daniel Chester French: An American Sculptor, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976, pp. 4, 39-47, fig. 11, illustration of another example p. 45

This sculpture is in very good condition. For a more detailed condition report prepared by Wilson Conservation, LLC., please contact the American Art department.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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In November 1873, Daniel Chester French was awarded, by a committee of ten representing the town of Concord, Massachusetts, the commission to create the Minute Man monument (Minuteman National Historic Park, Concord, Massachusetts). Designed to memorialize and commemorate the first armed resistance to Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War, the Minute Man was unveiled on April 19, 1875, the centennial of the Battle of Concord at North Bridge. The sculpture depicts a farmer, appropriately dressed in Revolutionary-era attire, relinquishing his plow while simultaneously raising his rifle and confidently embracing the role of a soldier (Thayer Tolles, "Daniel Chester French, 1850-1931," Selections from the American Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts and the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1999, pp. 223-24).

In 1889, French reduced and reworked the composition and with added years of experience refined his previous casting. He titled the work The Concord Minute Man of 1775 and while initially placed aboard the Navy gunboat U.S.S. Concord, today the work is in the collection of the Navy Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Around 1913, French authorized the casting of 32-inch reductions first at Jno. Williams Foundry and later Gorham Co. Foundry. Among the located examples of Jno. Williams casts are those at Ball State University Museum of Art, Muncie, Indiana and the National Board for Promotion of Rifle Practice, Department of the Army, Washington, D.C.