Celebrate the Lincoln Memorial Centennial in the Berkshires

Chesterwood marks anniversary with documentary film premiere, collaborative exhibit at Norman Rockwell Museum

BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

On May 30, 1922, in a simple ceremony with only three speakers and an estimated crowd of 50,000 onlookers, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. Seated in places of honor were architect Henry Bacon Jr. and sculptor Daniel Chester French.

Bacon modeled the memorial after the Greek Parthenon, with 36 exterior columns symbolizing the 36 states of the Union at the time of Abraham Lincoln’s death. The interior was designed to have three chambers — two dedicated to his celebrated speeches and a central chamber featuring a sculpture of the president. French personally was selected, by the memorial committee and by Bacon, to sculpt the Lincoln statue.

French spent several years researching Lincoln, studying photographs and casts of his hands and face, before designing the 19-foot-tall marble statue of the nation’s 16th president in his studio at Chesterwood, his Gilded Age cottage in the Glendale section of Stockbridge. A 6-foot-tall model of a seated Lincoln, a plaster cast sent off to be used to carve the monument, can be seen at the studio, now a historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Daniel Chester French stands with his model of Abraham Lincoln in the Chesterwood studio.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY CHESTERWOOD

The iconic statue was carved from 28 blocks of Georgia marble by French’s longtime collaborators, the Piccirilli brothers, who ran New York’s premier marble-cutting workshop. The brothers cut the marble in their New York studio to match French’s designs before moving them to Washington, where French perfected the intricately carved pieces.

You won’t have to travel to the nation’s capital to celebrate the Lincoln Memorial’s centennial, as there will be several opportunities this May to mark the commemoration in the Berkshires.

LINCOLN MEMORIAL ILLUSTRATED

The Norman Rockwell Museum, in collaboration with Chesterwood, opens “The Lincoln Memorial Illustrated,” an exhibition highlighting the work of illustrators and artists who have incorporated the Lincoln Memorial into their art as a symbolic element.

Approximately 50 historical and contemporary artworks by noted illustrators and cartoonists will be featured, as will archival photographs, sculptural elements, artifacts and ephemera. The exhibit will runs May 4 to Sept. 5.

DOCUMENTARY FILM

“Daniel Chester French: American Sculptor,” the first documentary to focus on French, will premiere at 7 p.m. May 26, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. Opening remarks will be presented by Michael Bobbitt, executive director of the Mass Cultural Council. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker Eduardo Montes-Bradley, Lincoln scholar Harold Hozer and American art specialist Thayer Tolles. Tickets available at mahaiwe.org.

The documentary, by Montes-Bradley and the Heritage Film Project, spans French’s formative years studying with May Alcott, his neighbor in Concord; apprenticing with American sculptor Thomas Ball in Florence, Italy; establishing a studio in Greenwich Village; and then finding his true creative home at Chesterwood, where he built a new studio, home and gardens that he fondly referred to as “six months in heaven.”

The film also looks at the aesthetic and political significance of French’s hundreds of public sculptures.

MEMORIAL DAY CELEBRATION

On May 30, from noon to 3 p.m., Chesterwood celebrates the centennial of the Lincoln Memorial with family-friendly activities, including live music by the Berkshire Jazz Collective, a special Lincoln tour and readings from the memorial-dedication event 100 years ago, all at reduced admission. More information at chesterwood.org. ■