Charles Grafly

Charles Grafly
File:Picture of Charles Grafly.jpg
Born	Charles Allan Grafly, Jr. (1862-12-03)December 3, 1862 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nationality	American
Education	Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Known for	Sculpture

Charles Allan Grafly, Jr. (December 3, 1862 - May 5, 1929) was an American sculptor and educator. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for 37 years.

Life and career

Grafly was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of German, Dutch and Quaker heritage and developed an interest in art at an early age. At 17 he was apprenticed to Struthers Stoneyard, at that time one of the largest stone carving ventures in the country. He spent four years carving decorations and figures for Philadelphia City Hall, under the direction of Alexander Milne Calder. In order to improve his skills at carving figures and to improve his understanding of anatomy he began attending art school, eventually studying under Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1888 Grafly moved to Paris where he studied with Henri Chapu and Jean Dampt, and later gained admittance to the École des Beaux Arts, Paris. He received an Honorable Mention in the Paris Salon of 1891 for his "Mauvais Presage," now at the Detroit Institute of Art. Other awards include a Gold Medal at the Paris Exposition in 1900, and medals at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Atlanta, 1895, and Philadelphia (Gold Medal of Honor, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts), 1899.

PAFA

File:Grafly 4195196278 785be439ec o.jpg

Charles Allan Grafly.

In 1892 he became Instructor in Sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, also filling the same chair at the Drexel University, Philadelphia. He was a founding member of the National Sculpture Society and was elected a full member of the National Academy of Design in 1905. In 1913 Grafly was awarded the first Widener Gold Medal for sculpture.

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts has about twenty of Grafly's bronzes in its collection, while the museum at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas possesses over two hundred of his works, mostly plaster casts, from the late Charles and Dorothy Grafly Drummond (the artist's daughter).

Among Grafly's many students were sculptors George Demetrios, Paul Manship, Louis Milione, Eugene Castello, Charles Harley, Nancy Coonsman, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Dudley Pratt, Walker Hancock, Albin Polasek, Katherine Lane Weems, and Albert Laessle. The latter two served as pall-bearers at Grafly's funeral following his 1929 death, in which he was struck by a hit-and-run driver.

On his deathbed, Grafly asked Walker Hancock to succeed him as Instructor of Sculpture at PAFA.

Selected works

• Vulture of War (1895–99), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
• Symbol of Life (1897), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
• From Generation to Generation (1897–98), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
• Bust of Admiral David Dixon Porter (1898–1901), Smith Memorial Arch, West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, PA.
• Bust of John B. Gest (1901), Smith Memorial Arch, West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, PA.
• Fountain of Man (1901), Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, NY.
• General John F. Reynolds (1901–02), Smith Memorial Arch, West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, PA.
• Allegorical figures of Great Britain (1903) and France (1904), U.S. Custom House, New York, NY, Cass Gilbert, architect.
• Vérité (Truth), Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis, Missouri (1904).
• Pioneer Mother Memorial (1913–15), Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.
• General George Gordon Meade Memorial (1927), E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse, Washington DC.
• General Galusha Pennypacker (1934), Logan Circle, Philadelphia, PA. Albert Laessle completed the posthumous work.
• and many portrait busts.

Hall of Fame for Great Americans

• Bust of James Buchanan Eads (1924), Hall of Fame for Great Americans, Bronx, New York.
• Bust of Jonathan Edwards (1926), Hall of Fame for Great Americans, Bronx, New York.
• Bust of David Glasgow Farragut (1927), Hall of Fame for Great Americans, Bronx, New York.
• Bust of John Paul Jones (1928), Hall of Fame for Great Americans, Bronx, New York.

• Smith arch Porter.jpg

  Bust of Admiral David Dixon Porter (1898–1901), Smith Memorial Arch, Philadelphia, PA.

• Smith arch John B Gest.jpg

  Bust of John B. Gest (1901), Smith Memorial Arch.

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  Fountain of Man (center) (1901), Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, NY.

• Charles Grafly - Vérité.jpg

  Vérité (1904), Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis, Missouri.

• Pioneer Mother by Charles Grafly.jpg

  Pioneer Mother Memorial (1913–15), Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, CA. Now installed in Golden Gate Park.

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  General George Gordon Meade Memorial (1927), Washington DC.

• Galusha Pennypacker statue offset.jpg

  General Galusha Pennypacker (1934), Philadelphia, PA. Albert Laessle completed the posthumous work.

Further reading

• Drummond, Dorothy Grafly, The Sculptor's Clay: Charles Grafly (1862–1929), Edwin A Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University Wichita, Kansas (1929, reprinted 1996).
• Moissaye Marans, "Charles Grafly as Teacher," National Sculpture Review, vol. 21 (Fall 1972).
• Pamela H. Simpson, The Sculpture of Charles Grafly, PhD. dissertation, (University of Delaware, 1974).
• Anne d'Harnoncourt, "Charles Grafly (1862-1929)," Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1976), pp. 439–40.
• Susan James-Gadzinski and Mary Mullen Cunningham, "Charles Grafly, 1862-1929," American Sculpture in the Museum of American Art of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA, 1997), pp. 118–41.

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