(John) Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American
artistPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
and
sculptorSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
famous for creating the monumental
presidentThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
s' heads at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, the famous carving on
Stone MountainStone Mountain is a quartz monzonite dome monadnock in Stone Mountain, Georgia. At its summit, the elevation is 1,686 feet amsl and 825 feet above the surrounding area. Stone Mountain granite extends underground at its longest point into Gwinnett County...
near Atlanta, as well as other public works of art.
Background
The son of Danish immigrants, Gutzon Borglum was born in 1867 in
St. CharlesSt. Charles is a city located near the northern end of Bear Lake, in Bear Lake County, Idaho, United States. The population was 156 at the 2000 census. Ranching and recreation are the major influences on the community. Its small population live in houses scattered through a number of blocks of...
,
IdahoIdaho is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans." Idaho was admitted to the Union on 3 July 1890 as the 43rd state....
. His father worked mainly as a woodcarver. A commemorative inscription stands near the center of the town. At the age of seven, he moved to
NebraskaNebraska is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha....
, and later graduated from
Creighton Preparatory SchoolCreighton Preparatory School , is a private, Jesuit college prep school for young men; founded in 1878. Centrally located in Omaha, Nebraska at 7400 Western Avenue, Prep is the largest Catholic high school in the state of Nebraska, USA with an enrollment of 1,038 young men...
. He was trained in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
at the
Académie JulianThe Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. At the time, the government sanctioned art school of France, École des Beaux-Arts, did not allow women to enroll...
, where he came to know
Auguste RodinAuguste Rodin[p] was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
and was influenced by Rodin's impressionistic light-catching surfaces. Back in the U.S. in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
he sculpted saints and apostles for the new
Cathedral of Saint John the DivineThe Cathedral of St. John the Divine, officially the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in the City and Diocese of New York, is the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York...
in 1901, got a sculpture accepted by the
Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, known colloquially as The Met, is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, USA. It has a permanent collection containing more than two million works of art, divided into nineteen curatorial...
— the first sculpture by a living American the museum had ever purchased—and made his presence further felt with some portraits. He also won the
Logan Medal of the artsThe Logan Medal of the Arts was an arts prize initiated in 1907 and associated with the Art Institute of Chicago. From 1917 through 1940, 270 awards were given....
.
After graduation from Harvard Technical College, his reputation surpassed that of his younger brother,
Solon BorglumSolon Hannibal de la Mothe Borglum was an American sculptor.Born in Ogden, Utah, he was the younger brother of Gutzon Borglum and uncle of Lincoln Borglum , the two men most responsible for the creation of the carvings at Mount Rushmore...
, already an established sculptor.
A fascination with gigantic scale and themes of heroic nationalism suited his extroverted personality. His head of
Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery...
, carved from a six-ton block of marble, was exhibited in
Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, his range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Bull Moose Party...
's
White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
and can be found in the
Capitol RotundaThe United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the Federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall. Though not in the geographic center of the District of...
in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
A patriot, believing that the "monuments we have built are not our own," he looked to create art that was "American, drawn from American sources, memorializing American achievement" according to a 1908 interview article. His equation of being "American" with being born of American parents—"flesh of our flesh"—was characteristic of nativist beliefs in the early 20th century. Borglum was highly suited to the competitive environment surrounding the contracts for public buildings and monuments, and his public sculpture is sited all around the United States.
In 1908, Borglum won a competition for a statue of the Civil War General
Philip SheridanPhilip Henry Sheridan was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close association with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S...
to be placed in
Sheridan CircleSheridan Circle is a traffic circle in the Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Embassy Row. It is named for General Philip Sheridan, Union general of the American Civil War and later general of the United States Army...
in Washington. D.C. A second version was erected in Chicago,
IllinoisIllinois , the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation...
in 1923. Winning this competition was a personal triumph for him because he won out over sculptor
J.Q.A.WardJohn Quincy Adams Ward was an American sculptor, who is most familiar for his over-lifesize standing statue of George Washington on the steps of Federal Hall on Wall Street.-Early years:...
, a much older and more established artist, and one whom Borglum had clashed with earlier in regard to the
National Sculpture SocietyFounded in 1893, the National Sculpture Society was the first organization of professional sculptors formed in the United States. The purpose of the organization was to promote the welfare of American sculptors, although its founding members included several renowned architects. The founding...
. At the unveiling of the Sheridan one critic, President Theodore Roosevelt (whom Borglum was later to put on Mount Rushmore) declared that it was "first rate," and another critic was to state that, "as a sculptor Gutzon Borglum was no longer a rumor, he was a fact." (Smith:see References)
Borglum was active in the committee that organized the New York
Armory ShowMany exhibitions have been held in the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories, but the Armory Show refers to the International Exhibition of Modern Art that was organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors and opened in New York City's 69th Regiment Armory, on...
of 1913, the birthplace of
modernismModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late...
in American art. But by the time the show was ready to open, Borglum resigned from the committee, feeling that the emphasis on avant-garde works had co-opted the original premise of the show and made traditional artists like himself look provincial. He lived in
Stamford, ConnecticutStamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to 2007 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 118,475, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England Stamford is part of the New York metropolitan area.-Sister...
for 10 years.
Stone Mountain
Borglum's nativist stances made him seem an ideologically sympathetic choice to carve a memorial to heroes of the
ConfederacyThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
, planned for
Stone MountainStone Mountain is a quartz monzonite dome monadnock in Stone Mountain, Georgia. At its summit, the elevation is 1,686 feet amsl and 825 feet above the surrounding area. Stone Mountain granite extends underground at its longest point into Gwinnett County...
, Georgia. In 1915, he was approached by the
United Daughters of the ConfederacyThe United Daughters of the Confederacy is a women's heritage association dedicated to honoring the memory of those who served and died in service to the Confederate States of America . UDC began as the National Association of the Daughters of the Confederacy, organized in 1894 by Caroline...
with a project for sculpting a high bust of General
Robert E. LeeRobert Edward Lee was a career United States Army officer, an engineer, and among the most celebrated generals in American history. Lee was the son of Major General Henry Lee III "Light Horse Harry" , Governor of Virginia, and his second wife, Anne Hill Carter...
on the mountain's rockface. Borglum accepted, but told the committee, "
Ladies, a twenty foot head of Lee on that mountainside would look like a postage stamp on a barn door."
Borglum's ideas eventually evolved into a high-relief
friezethumb|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain or—in the Ionic or Corinthian order—decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
of Lee,
Jefferson DavisJefferson Finis Davis was an American politician who served as President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history, 1861 to 1865, during the American Civil War....
, and 'Stonewall' Jackson riding around the mountain, followed by a legion of artillery troops.
After a delay caused by
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, Borglum and the newly-chartered Stone Mountain Confederate Monumental Association set to work on this unexampled monument, the size of which had never been attempted before. Many difficulties slowed progress, some because of the sheer scale involved. After finishing the detailed model of the carving, Borglum was unable to trace the figures onto the massive area on which he was working, until he developed a gigantic
magic lanternThe magic lantern or Lanterna Magica was the ancestor of the modern slide projector.*1558:Giovanni Battista della Porta describes projection with a lantern in his four volume, Latin publication entitled Magiae naturalis, Naples 1558. The etymology of the sobriquet lanterna magica may harken back...
to project the image onto the side of the mountain.
Carving officially began on June 23, 1923, with Borglum making the first cut. At Stone Mountain he developed sympathetic connections with the reorganized
Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan , informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation. The first such organizations originated in...
, who were major financial backers for the monument. Lee's head was unveiled on Lee's birthday January 19, 1924, to a large crowd, but soon thereafter Borglum was increasingly at odds with the officials of the Association. His domineering, perfectionist, irascible, authoritarian manner brought tensions to such a point that in March 1925 Borglum smashed his clay and plaster models, and he left Georgia permanently. His tenure with the association was over. None of his work remains, as it was all cleared from the mountain's face for the work of
Augustus LukemanHenry Augustus Lukeman was an American sculptor, specialising in historical monuments. He was born at Richmond, Va., and studied under Launt Thompson and Daniel Chester French in New York and at the Beaux-Arts in Paris under Falguière. He aided French in his statue "The Republic" at the Chicago...
, Borglum's replacement, but in his abortive attempt, Borglum had developed necessary techniques for sculpting on a gigantic scale that made Mount Rushmore possible.
Mount Rushmore
His Mount Rushmore project was the brainchild of South Dakota state historian
Doane RobinsonJonah LeRoy "Doane" Robinson was a state historian of South Dakota who conceived of the idea for the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.-Early life:...
. His first attempt with one of the faces was blown up after two years. Dynamite was also used to remove large areas of rock from under Washington's brow. The initial pair of presidents,
George WashingtonGeorge Washington was the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and served as the first President of the United States of America...
and
Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery...
was soon joined by
Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States , the principal author of the Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States...
, for this monument sited in the sacred Native American heartland of the
Louisiana PurchaseThe Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of the French territory Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
, and to make the theme of
Manifest DestinyManifest Destiny is a term that was used in the 19th century to designate the belief that the United States was destined, even divinely ordained, to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean...
perfectly clear,
Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, his range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Bull Moose Party...
.
Borglum alternated exhausting on-site supervising with world tours, raising money, polishing his personal legend, sculpting a
Thomas PaineThomas Paine was an author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Born in England, Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 in time to participate in the American Revolution...
memorial for Paris and a
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
one for Poland. In his absence, work at Mount Rushmore was overseen by his son
LincolnJames Lincoln de la Mothe Borglum was an American sculptor, photographer, author and engineer; he was best known for overseeing the completion of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial after the death in 1941 of the projects leader, his father Gutzon Borglum.Named after his father's favorite...
. When he died in Chicago, following complications after surgery, his son finished another season at Rushmore, but left the monument largely in the state of completion it had reached under his father's direction.
Other works
In 1908, Borglum completed the statue of
John William MackayJohn William Mackay was an American capitalist, born in Dublin, Ireland.-Biography:His parents brought him in 1840 to New York City, where he worked in a shipyard. In 1851 he went to California and worked in placer gold-mines in Sierra County...
(1831-1902), a
Comstock LodeThe Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. deposit of silver ore, discovered under what is now Virginia City, Nevada on the eastern slope of Mt. Davidson, a peak in the Virginia range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims...
silver baron. The statue is located at the
University of Nevada, RenoThe University of Nevada, Reno is a university located in Reno, Nevada, USA, and includes programs in agricultural research, journalism, animal biotechnology, mining-related engineering, business administration, and natural sciences such as seismology. The university's journalism school has...
.
One of Borglum's more unusual pieces is the "Aviator", completed in 1919 as a memorial for James R. McConnell, who was killed in World War I while flying for the
Lafayette EscadrilleThe Lafayette Escadrille , was a squadron of the French Air Service, the Aéronautique militaire, during World War I composed largely of American volunteer pilots flying fighters....
. It is located on the grounds of the
University of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
in
Charlottesville, VirginiaCharlottesville is an independent city geographically located in Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom....
.
Another impressive Borglum design is the
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
state monument on
Seminary RidgeSeminary Ridge is a geographic feature immediately to the west of the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Its name derives from the Lutheran Theological Seminary on its crest...
at the
Gettysburg BattlefieldThe Gettysburg Battlefield was the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the borough of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the county seat of Adams County, which had approximately 2,400 residents at the time. It is now the site of two Federally owned and administered...
in south-central
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
. The cast bronze sculpture depicts a wounded
ConfederateThe Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America during its brief existence from 1861 to 1865. It was established in two phases with provisional and permanent organizations, which existed concurrently....
officer encouraging his men to push forward during
Pickett's ChargePickett's Charge was an infantry assault ordered by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee against Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's Union positions on Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863, the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Its futility was predicted by the charge's commander,...
. With dramatic flair, Borglum had made arrangements for an airplane to fly over the monument during the dedication ceremony on July 3, 1929. During the sculpture's unveiling, the plane scattered roses across the field as a salute to those North Carolinians who had fought and died at Gettysburg.
Borglum was an active member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons (the Freemasons), raised in Howard Lodge #35, New York City, on June 10, 1904, and serving as its Worshipful Master 1910-11. In 1915, he was appointed Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of Denmark near the Grand Lodge of New York. He received his Scottish Rite Degrees in the New York City Consistory on October 25, 1907. Borglum was a member of the
Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan , informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation. The first such organizations originated in...
. He sat on the Imperial Koncilium in 1923, which transferred leadership of The Ku Klux Klan from Imperial Wizard Colonel Simmons to Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans. Later, he stated, "
I am not a member of the Kloncilium, nor a knight of the KKK", but Shaff and Shaff add,
"that was for public consumption." The museum at Mount Rushmore displays a letter to Borglum from
D. C. StephensonDavid Curtiss "Steve" Stephenson was an American Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in the U.S. state of Indiana and 22 other Northern states. He is considered to have been one of the most successful Klan leaders up until his downfall after his conviction for murder...
, the infamous Klan Grand Dragon who was later convicted of the rape and murder of
Madge OberholtzerMadge Augustine Oberholtzer was an American schoolteacher who worked and lived in Indianapolis. Abducted and assaulted, she achieved national attention by naming D.C. Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the Indiana Ku Klux Klan, as her assailant before she died of poisoning...
.
Borglum is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in
GlendaleGlendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It lies at the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley, is bisected by the Verdugo Mountains, and is a suburb in the Greater Los Angeles Area...
in the Memorial Court of Honor. His second wife, Mary Montgomery Williams Borglum, 1874–1955 (they were married May 20, 1909) is interred alongside him. In addition to his son, Lincoln, he had a daughter, Mary Ellis (Mel) Borglum Vhay (1916-2002).
Canadian artist
Christian Cardell CorbetChristian Cardell Corbet is a Canadian painter, sculptor and designer.-Most Notable Quote:"When one buys some of my artwork I hope it is because they will wish to learn from it and not because they think it will match their drapes!"-Christian Cardell Corbet, 1997-Early Life:Born in 1966, at...
was the first Canadian to sculpt a posthumous medallion of Borglum. It currently resides at the Gutzon Borglum Museum in South Dakota.
In 1938 Borglum also sculpted the Memorial to the "Start Westward of the United States" which is located in
Marietta, OhioMarietta is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Washington County. The municipality is located in southeastern Ohio at the confluence of the Muskingum River with the Ohio River. The population was 14,515 at the 2000 census...
. He also built the statue of
Daniel ButterfieldDaniel Adams Butterfield was a New York businessman, a Union General in the American Civil War, and Assistant U.S. Treasurer in New York. He is credited with composing the bugle call Taps and was involved in the Black Friday gold scandal in the Grant administration...
in
Sakura ParkSakura Park is a public park, located at the northern-tip of Morningside Heights, New York City. Sandwiched between Riverside Church on the south, the Manhattan School of Music on the east, Grants Tomb on the west, and International House on its northern side, it is a small, but historic, piece of...
, Manhattan.
Popular culture
Borglum is mentioned in the 2007 film National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets as having to construct the monument at Mount Rushmore to cover up national landmarks.
External links