Leonard Wells Volk and
Emily Clarissa Barlow |
Century Biographical Dictionary
of Notable Americans: Volume X
page 265 |
VOLK, Leonard Wells, sculptor, was born in Wellstown -
Wells, N.Y., November 7, 1828; son of Garrett and Elizabeth
'Gesner' Volk; grandson of Cornelius and Jenny 'Conkiln'
Gesner, and a descendant, through his mother, of Everardus
Bogardus, who came from Holland to New Amsterdam about 1635,
where he was the first Dutch minister. His father was a marble-cutter,
in whose shop at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he was employed,
1844-48, removing to St. Louis, Missouri, in the latter year,
where he was engaged in marble work and sculpture, and devoted
his leisure to drawing and clay-modeling. He modeled a bust
of Henry Clay, the first bust made west of the Mississippi.
He was married, April 28,1852, to Emily
Clarissa, daughter of Dr. Jonathan King and Honor 'Douglas'
Barlow of Bethany, N.Y., and cousin of Stephen A. Douglas,
under whose patronage he studied art in Italy, 1855-57.
On his return in 1857, he established himself in Chicago,
Illnois, where he modeled a bust of Stephen A. Douglas,
the first bust ever made in Chicago. He continued his work
in Italy, 1868-69 and 1871-72.
He was a member of the Chicago Academy of Design, which
he helped to organize, 1867, and served as its president
for many years. He organized the first art exhibition of
Chicago, 1859; exhibited at the Paris exposition, 1867;
and the World's Columbian exposition, 1893. His portrait
busts include the following subjects: Stephen A. Douglas
-1857; Abraham Lincoln -1860, the original marble being
destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871; Henry Clay, Zechariah
Chandler. Dr. Daniel Brainerd, and Elihu B. Washburne;
statue of General James Shields in the statuary gallery,
capitol at Washington; life mask of Lincoln -1860; the
Douglas monument -1868, Chicago, Illinois; life-size statues
of Douglas and Lincoln - 1876, in the Illinois state capitol;
the statuary for the Henry Keep mausoleum, Watertown, N.Y.,
and various soldiers' monuments.
He died in Osceola, Wisconsin, August 19, 1895. |
| The Twentieth Century
Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume XV |
| VOLK, Stephen Arnold Douglas, artist, was
born in Pittsfield, Mass., Feb. 23, 1856; son of Leonard
Wells (q.v.) and Emily
Clarissa 'Barlow' Volk.
He lived in Chicago, 1858-70, studied
in Rome, Italy, 1871-73, where he worked from nature, and
in 'Gigis' night
school and other galleries, and under Gérôme
in Paris, France, 1873-78, exhibiting at the Paris Salon,
1875-78, revisiting the United States in 1876, and exhibiting
at the Philadelphia Centennial exposition.
He was married, June 25, 1881, to Marion Brewer, daughter
of William M. and Margaret 'Knight' Larrabee of Chicago,
Illinois.
He was an instructor in portrait-painting, Cooper Union,
1879-84, and after 1894; in drawing at the Art Students'
league, 1894-99, in portrait-painting at the latter from
1903, and a frequent lecturer on art instruction in the
public schools, and on the revival of handicraft.
He was elected a member of the Society of American Artists,
1880, and was its secretary, 1899; a National Academician,
1900, and organized the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts,
1886.
His exhibit of Mending the Canoe, The Puritan Maiden and
Portrait of Mrs. X., received a medal at the World's Columbian
exposition, 1893, of which he was a member of the national
jury; his figure-painting, Woodland Maid, was awarded the
Shaw prize by the Society of American Artists, 1899, and
in the same year, his Colonial Youth won the first prize
offered by the Colonial exhibition at Boston, Mass., also
medals at the Buffalo Pan American and Charleston expositions.
His other canvases include; En Bretagne (1875); Miss T.
(1878); Miss H. (1880); The Captives (1882); Accused of
Witchcraft, now in the Corcoran art gallery, Washington
(1884); Autumn (1893); Flower of the Colony (1894); Motherhood
(1895); The Puritan Mother, owned by the Carnegie Museum,
Pittsburg (1897); The Maiden's Reverie, now owned by the
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Museum (1897); The Song of the
Pines (1898); The Boy with the Arrow (1903), which received
the Carnegie prize at the exhibition of the Society of
American Artists in New York city (1903).
He is the author of a monograph on Art Instruction in
the Public Schools. (1894) |
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