ORTH SHORE BREEZE 
AND REMINDER 
ae 
Vol. XIil 
Manchester, Mass., Friday, August 14, 1914 
No. 33 
Expressing American Ideals 
Is Aim of Woman Sculptor 
4 Ba bring the love of and training in classic art to the 
expression of American ideals is the aim of Anna 
Coleman Ladd, the only woman sculptor on the committee 
of 12 for the Panama exposition and a member of the 
advisory committee for New England. She has been 
invited to exhibit three examples of her own work at the 
exposition. 
In Mrs. Ladd’s design for a soldiers’ monument Just 
finished, the ideals of the new world are revealed in its 
epitomizing of the peace idea. Courage, strength and 
valor are expressed in the three figures of the design. 
The central woman figure with the rainbow of pro- 
mise behind her head sits erect in quiet dignity, her face ~ 
calm as she looks into the future. . 
On the right side a Southern soldier and on the 
left a soldier of the North turn toward the vision of 
peace. The cavalryman sheathes his sword. His chival- 
rous cloaked figure contrasts with the stalwart quiet ot 
the Northern soldier whose gun is at rest. 
In the lower section of the relief a recumbent soldier 
looks up and back to see the vision for which his sacrifice 
has been made. 
The relief, to be finished in bronze, was not made 
by Mrs. Ladd for any particular position. It is a visualiz- 
ing of her own vision of universal peace. 
Mrs. Ladd insists that she is not original in her work, 
but that she just models the thing before 
her eyes. She said, “I see children play- 
ing; there is my study. A person makes 
a heroic sacrifice. I hear or read about 
it and I have my theme. 
“Fyerywhere there are subjects for 
sculpture. The laborer digging in the 
street, or the man climbing a pole reveal 
strength and ruggedness of the type I 
like to model. I want more than any- 
thing to make things for the people, to 
put the artistic and beautiful into the 
lives of all the people. 
“T would love to decorate a station 
or bridge. Millett raised the common- 
place in peasant life to the level of the 
artistic by his crayons; why not ratse 
the commonplace in the big ordinary 
things to the same level.” ES: 
Mrs. Ladd is not unappreciative of 
the recognition which she has gained in 
America and abroad for her portrait 
busts, her fountain groups with their 
delicate imagery, her  bas-reliefs and 
other work, but she considers all this 
work but a ladder for the ultimate end 
toward which she is striving. 
A bronze medallian finished this 
week for which Mrs. Ladd’s two child- 
ren were the models is a work of 
“DIANA” STATUE BY MRS, LADD 
extreme delicacy. The border enclosing the two heads 
1s a pattern of morning glories and primroses, symbolical 
of youth. The children’s heads are in very low relief 
and are posed one below the other in contrast to the com. 
mon arrangement of profiles side by side. | 
The older child, with head half turned, is laughing 
and on the other face rests the dreamy expression of 
a childish seer. One of the statues which go to San Fran- 
cisco is the “Triton Babies” fountain, two sturdy little 
figures tumbling over each other in play. | ; 
“Wind and Spray” and “The Sungod” are the two 
other fountains which have been asked for by the expo- 
sition authorities. In these Mrs. Ladd has interpreted 
the moods of nature through the human form. The 
“Wind and Spray” fountain is a group of ‘five figures 
representative of the wind pursuing the fountain spray. 
“The Summit” was inspired by Mt. Monadnock in 
it two figures recline on the slope of the mountain, every 
line denoting calm and quiet, a manifestive of the peace 
which nature gives. “The Human Instrument,” a study 
of a master playing on a ’cello, which seems to become 
human under his touch, is full of the rhythm and swing 
of music, and “The Sword,”a woman’s figure with closed 
eyes, represents the impersonality of justice. 
Mrs.. Ladd has just returned from an eight months’ 
stay in Rome, where her bronzes were exhibited on invi- 
tation. Her work received the approval 
of the Italians and the French when ex- 
hibited at the Roman Belle Arti, Paris 
Salon, and d’Antoine. A bronze relief 
called “Raffaella,” made in Rome, at- 
tracted much attention because of the 
sculptor’s representation of the 
values of the red gold 
rodel. 
Mme. Duse, the Italian actress, as 
a seated Victory, a bronze statuette, 
which Mrs. Ladd considers one of her 
best things, was bought by Mime. Duse 
at its completion. With the exception 
of Hildebrand, Mrs. Ladd is the only 
color 
haim oO tecthe 
sculptor for whon Mme. Duse_ has 
posed. 
Mrs. Ladd is best known about 
Boston for her work in busts. At the 
present time she is engaged on a bust 
of Mrs. Beveridge, the wife of former 
Senator Albert Beveridge. Americans 
who own bronzes by Mrs. Ladd include 
John Hays Hammond, Bayard Cutting, 
William Phillips, Edward J. 
Mrs. Scott Fitz, Mrs. E. S. 
Mrs. Gordon Abbott. 
The bronze panel owned by Mrs. J. 
W. Merrill of Manchester is a study 
“Wy ‘puey wy Moq YAM ,BURIC,, Jo 
Holmes, 
Grew and 
