1. Charles Grafly created heroic sculpture for international expositions and war memorials, but was noted for his small bronzes and portrait busts.
29 Facts About Charles Grafly
1. 2.
Charles Grafly's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Academy of Design, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and other museums.
3.
Charles Grafly's family were Quaker farmers, and of German and Dutch heritage.
4.
Charles Grafly attended Philadelphia public schools, and developed an interest in art at an early age.
5.
Charles Grafly spent four years carving ornament and figures for Philadelphia City Hall, under the direction of sculptor Alexander Milne Calder.
6.
Charles Grafly studied under Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts beginning in 1884, and followed Eakins to the Art Students' League of Philadelphia in 1886.
7.
Charles Grafly returned to PAFA the following year, and studied under Thomas Anshutz.
8.
Charles Grafly shared a flat with fellow American art students Robert Henri, Harry Finney, William Hoefeker, and James Randolph Fisher.
9.
Charles Grafly exhibited two ideal busts, Saint John and Daedalus at the Paris Salon of 1890.
10.
Charles Grafly exhibited his first major work, a life-size female nude, Mauvais Presage, at the Salon of 1891, which received an Honorable Mention.
11.
Charles Grafly took a one-year sabbatical in 1895, to get married and create what he hoped would be his masterpiece.
12.
Charles Grafly returned to teaching at PAFA in Fall 1896, but continued to work on the sculpture group.
13.
Charles Grafly was commissioned in 1898 to create two colossal busts for the Smith Memorial Arch, a Civil War monument in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.
14.
Charles Grafly served as a member of the Art Jury for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis, Missouri, and designed the medal that was awarded to winning artists.
15.
Charles Grafly's Verite was carved in marble, and installed in a niche flanking the main entrance to the Palace of Fine Arts.
16.
Charles Grafly's best known sculpture is probably the Pioneer Mother Monument, in San Francisco, California.
17.
The Pioneer Mother Monument Association raised $22,500 for the project, and Trask commissioned Charles Grafly to create the sculpture in 1913.
18.
The Pioneer Mother monument, by Charles Grafly, is a permanent bronze, a tribute by the people of the West to the women who laid the foundation of their welfare.
19.
Charles Grafly modeled dozens of portrait heads and busts; many as commissions, but of friends and family members.
20.
Charles Grafly modeled two of the colossal figures for the facade of the Alexander Hamilton US Custom House in Manhattan, New York City.
21.
Charles Grafly was commissioned to create a memorial to Major General Galusha Pennypacker for Logan Square, Philadelphia.
22.
Charles Grafly was a founding member of the National Sculpture Society, served on its council, and was later elected a Fellow.
23.
Charles Grafly was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design in 1902, and an Academician in 1905.
24.
Charles Grafly married Frances Sekeles of Corinth, Mississippi, on June 7,1895.
25.
In 1905, Charles Grafly bought property in Lanesville, Gloucester, Massachusetts, and built a house and studio that he named "Fool's Paradise".
26.
Charles Grafly made "Fool's Paradise" his residence year-round, and commuted to Philadelphia or Boston by train.
27.
Charles Grafly asked me to make sure that the wreath behind the head of General Meade in the Meade Memorial in Washington would be freshly gilded.
28.
Charles Grafly's other worry was that the landscaping around his statue of James Buchanan in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, had not been carried out.
29.
Charles Grafly wanted me to see that this was done.