The Oregon Art of Alexander Phimister Proctor

Abstract

PeterH. Hassrick The Oregon Art of Alexander Phimister Proctor Rarely has the state of Oregon established so affec tionate and rewarding a relationship with an artist of interna tional renown as it did in the early 1900s with sculptor h? Alexander Phimister Proctor. In themid-i9ios, when Proctor's place inOregon's cultural development was most ascendant, he was re ferred to in the San Francisco Examiner as "the foremost sculptor of ani mals inAmerica."1 At the same time,while living inOregon and enthusias tically participating inwestern life,he expanded his artistic vision beyond that of an animalier sculptor to include themes from Indian history and cowboy pursuits. Scenes he observed at the Pendleton Round-Up inspired him to create his Buffalo Hunt bronze, which combined raw energy with grace and pounding action with designed elegance. His portrayal of the rodeo Buckaroo, imbued with similar aesthetic qualities, was seen as a crucial step in "putting the cowboy on the artmap."2 Proctor, Oregon, and the people who embodied its rich frontier legacy made natural partners. Proctor was born in Canada in i860. His pioneer family settled in Denver eleven years later, and itwas there and in the Colorado Rockies that he grew tomanhood. His experiences defined him as something of a dual persona. He possessed an abiding passion for art, and, encouraged by both parents, he began drawing lessons at age twelve. His father dreamed thathewould not only receiveart traininginNew YorkCitybut also in France, and Proctor ultimately fulfilled both parental expectations by studying at the National Academy ofDesign and the Art StudentsLeague inManhattan and theAcad?mie Julian in Paris. He developed an equally devoted affection for outdoor life, especially hunting and camping, while he was a young boy inColorado. As he grew up, his two obsessions wed comfortably into one career. 394 ? 2003 Oregon Historical Society A bas-relief on the base of Oregon Pioneer Mother, 1932, University ofOregon Museum ofArt, Eugene After completing his course of study in Paris, Proctor returned to America, established a studio inNew York, and quickly became America's leading animalier sculptor, mixing the French Beaux-Arts style of roman ticized naturalism with the American tenets of nobility, simplicity, and dignity espoused by his mentor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens. His successes can be seen inmany eastern cities, from his huge marble Lions for Presi dentWilliam McKinley's Buffalo, New York,monument to the giant bronze Buffaloes that adorn theQ Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. When, after 1910, Proctor began making appeals of patronage towest ern cities such as Denver, Seattle, and Los Angeles, itwas Portland that first opened itsdoors to him. The Portland Art Association hosted ama jor exhibition of his sculptures in 1911and purchased one of hismost strik ing early works, The Indian Warrior.3 That bronze was the first original piece of sculpture to enter the collections of the Portland Art Museum.4 Proctor expressed his affection for Portland clearly and openly: Hassrick, Proctor inOregon 395 I likePortland better than any other city.... The people are charming and the art appre ciationhere iskeener andmore discriminating than in any other Western city that I have ever visited. Of course, I like Denver... but Portland isdif ferent, ithas thebreadth and breeziness of the West and cul ture of the East, and that, as youmay well [know], isa rare combination.5 The relationship between Proctor and Portland, based on a belief in the fun damental value of public aesthetic enrichment, proved to be mutually beneficial. The capstone, Proctor's impressive bronze equestrian monu ment to Theodore Roose velt, stands today as a re markable artistic collabo rative achievement. Proctor's association with otherOregon commu nities was no less celebrated and mutually salubrious. In Pendleton, where the artist and his family lived for several years, he produced his elegant testa ment to dedication and bravery, a monument to Sheriff Til Taylor. In Salem, his homage to the spirit of frontier evangelism, The Circuit Rider, stands near the state cap?tol. And Eugene features not one but two tributes toOregon's frontier heroes, Pioneer and The Pioneer Mother. Over a period ofmore than twenty years, from the early 1910s until the early 1930s, Proctor cast his favor...