Description:

White Stanford 1853 - 1906 Stanford White discusses the Brooklyn's Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch with MacMonnies
Single typed page on stationary stock addressed to "Mac", (Frederick William MacMonnies), on the firm's letterhead of "McKim, Mead & White". Dated "April 7th, 1896, and signed by Stanford White as "my love to .../ affy Stanford White", with an additional autographed paragraph as a post script. 8" x 10.25". Expected folds, two small 1mm holes, faint pencil marks, else fine. Verso blank.


Whites letter to MacMonnies, the best known expatriate American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school, commenting about The Soldiers and Sailors Arch at the Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York notes that he sent him "photographs of the Quadriga of the Arch.... And that I am certain that the height and size will turn out all right, and the impression ... was very splendid." Additionally White confirms "I found out that the use of sticks, or, in fact, anything, would simply mix things up, and that the only possible way that you could really judge would be to have as rough a cheap a model as possible, and have it stuck up there. This Young, the Scene Painter of the Broadway Theatre did for me, and he really did it very splendidly. But is was a tremendous undertaking, and the most hell of a job to put up in this stormy and windy weather that we have been having ..."

Although the Arch had opened to the public on 1894, the sculptures were not added until later in 1898. McKim, Mead and White recommended bronze status and, in 1894, Frederick W. MacMonnies was hired by the City of Brooklyn to design the bronze sculptural groupings. MacMonnies added Army and Navy sculptures and the allegorical crowning sculpture atop the Arch. It depicts three female sculptures, the winged goddess of victory in the center following victorious combat with instruments of war and the Quadriga representing the Union Army: two winged female attendants are seen removing two of the four Quadriga horses for peacetime use while trumpeting the victory and emancipation. The Quadriga was cast in Paris at the LeBlanc Barbedienne Foundry.

The November 6, 1898, edition of the New-York Tribune pictured "Brooklyn's Quadriga ... Being Placed on the Memorial Arch..." The February 12, 1899, edition of The New York Times reported "The Quadriga of Frederick MacMonnies has been placed upon the Soldiers and Sailors' Memorial Arch at the main entrance to Prospect Park, Brooklyn ... It is a colossal bronze group representing the triumph of American arms and the dignity of the Nation ... This great work of art was placed upon the arch recently without any ceremony attending it ... The work was to be completed by MacMonnies in two years in Paris, where he now resides. The sculptor, however, took four years to finish the group to his satisfaction..."

As additional side interest, White included a personal note to MacMonnies about Mac's wife, Mary Louise Fairchild, who was an established painter and had just exhibited some of her works. He admonished "That was a bully study of decoration of your wife's in the exhibition ..." And along the bottom of the letter White included a somewhat rushed, lengthy autographed post script of "By the way -- as a matter of Biz ( + not for me) what would Mrs. Mac ask for three (illegible) such as you and she gave me - a (illegible) saw them and said she would like three like them if I would not (illegible) her to get them?" Whites postscript appears to be referencing Mary's artwork. Just a few years prior to this letter Mary shared the spotlight with her husband, Mac, at the 1893 Chicago Exposition when he was commissioned to create the majestic Columbian fountain that was the centerpiece of the fair. Mary was asked to paint a giant mural, Primitive Woman, for the rotunda of the Woman's Building. However at the time of this letter she had resumed painting more classic oils on canvas and had an exhibit of her paintings in Paris in 1895.

A fascinating correspondence between architect and artist during a significant period of architectural design. Both men dominated the architectural scene in New York at the time. The Soldiers and Sailors Arch designated a New York City Landmark in 1973,and the crowning sculpture was restored after the chariot's figure fell out in 1976. A lovely image of the arch is shown below.

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