Wildlife and Western Heroes: Alexander Phimister Proctor, Sculptor by Peter Hassrick

Abstract

Wildlife andWestern Heroes: Alexander Phimister Proctor, Sculptor By PeterHassrick Amon Carter Museum, FortWorth, Texas, in association with Third Millenium Publishing, London, 2003. Photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 252 pages. $60.00 cloth. Reviewed by Roger Hull Willamette University,Salem, Oregon ALEXANDER PHIMISTER PROCTOR (l860 1950),a promisingwildlife painter, turned tobronze sculpture in 1887,establishing himself as an animalier inthe traditionofAntoine-Louis Barye. He trained in France, won the Prix de Rome in 1898and a goldmedal at the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition, then assisted the great American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, whose example prompted him towork with hu man figures aswell as animals. Proctor's sculp tureembodies Beaux-Arts ideals that,especially in the United States,provided an elegant (and, in Proctor's hands, virile) alternativeto modernism in the earlydecades of the twentiethcentury. In this definitivemonograph on Proctor, PeterHassrick, formerlycollections curator at theAmon CarterMuseum, remindsus (through context ratherthan explicit argument) thatuntil after World War II,Beaux-Arts conservatismwas an honored current in American art. InProctor's case, academic traditionwas vitalized by subject matter particularly appealing toAmericans, especially men: thewild animals and heroic humans of theAmerican West. From the age of ten, Proctor grew up in Denver, and his background as a "Westerner" became central to his persona even though he spent long periods in France, Italy, New York, New England, and eventually Los Angeles. His feat of killing an elk and a bear on the same day in 1876,when he was sixteen,figures prominently in commentaries on his life (and is listed in thehelpful chronology at the end of thebook). The criticRoyal Cortissoz described him admiringly as "the naturalist-hunter and the sculptor",and Proctor himself believed that the skillsofhunter and sculptorwere related (p. 65).Hassrick explains thatforProctor, as forthe Teddy Roosevelt era generally, it was important to establish art and artists as masculine in a world at riskofbecoming overly feminine.That Proctor hunted and slayed animals while also preserving them in art and advocating for the protection of the West's natural resources indi cates amode of thought thatHassrick, without extensive commentary, attributes toattitudes of theProgressive era. Proctor frequently returned to Colorado and also traveled to the Pacific Northwest and Canada to hunt, hike, and camp. He had fam ilynear Seattle and saw theNorthwest as fertile ground forcommissions. Portland was particu larlyfruitful:in 1911, his work was exhibited at thenew PortlandArtMuseum, which purchased his Indian Warrior (1898; cast 1900-1902), the firstoriginal bronze sculpture to enter the col lection.Thus began a long, cordial relationship between Proctor and Oregon. Understandably, he was takenwith Portland: "Art appreciation here iskeener andmore discriminating than in any other Western city that I have evervisited" (p. 69). Proctor's Oregon commissions include theequestrianmonument toTheodore Roosevelt (dedicated 1922;Park Blocks, Portland), Circuit Rider (dedicated 1924;Capitol grounds, Salem), and Oregon PioneerMother (dedicated 1932; Uni versityofOregon, Eugene). He lived fora time near Pendleton, and his monument to Sheriff Til Taylor was dedicated there in 1929.Perhaps hismost aestheticallypleasingwork inOregon is thereliefof threestalkinglionscommissioned by Wilson B.Ayer in 1913, willed to thePortland Art Reviews 509 Museum in 1935,and conserved and installed in the museum's sculpture court in 1998. Proctor isalso represented at the Metropoli tan Museum ofArt, BrooklynMuseum, Smith sonian American ArtMuseum, and numerous others, including theA. Phimister ProctorMu seum inPoulsbo,Washington, established in1997 by theartist'sgrandson.Monuments by Proctor are located inDenver,Washington, D.C., Pitts burgh, and other cities. Hassrick suggeststhathis supreme accomplishments are the equestrian, multi-figured Pioneer Mother inKansas City, Missouri, and the two-man, two-horse monu ment toRobert E. Lee inDallas, Texas. The monograph is spaciously designed and well organized and written.A seventyfive-page introductoryessay,divided into seven chapters, presents a chronological discussion of Proctor 's early life,development as an artist, happy marriage and family life, and successes and frustrations as he competed with his western art contemporaries Charles M. Russell and Frederick Remington as well as high style Beaux-Arts sculptors, especially followers of Daniel Chester French, rivalofProctor'smentor Saint-Gaudens. The essay is followed by a chronologi cal catalogue that illustrates and discusses each sculpture, providing information on patron-artist relations, significance of subject, date ofmodeling and casting, location, and other known versions. The catalogue is...