3/27/2023 0 Comments Ulysses s grant memorialTwenty-three artists submitted twenty-seven designs. In March 1902, the Commission solicited proposals, including the stipulations that artists had to be American citizens and that all sculpting and casting had to take place on American soil. Congress appointed the Grant Memorial Commission to identify a site and oversee a competition. In 1901, Congress passed the Hepburn Act, authorizing funds for a memorial at a cost not to exceed $250,000 this was the largest Federal sculptural commission to date. Lee's surrender at Appomattox ended the Civil War, veterans who had served under Grant in the Army of the Tennessee launched a campaign to erect a monument to General Grant in Washington, D.C. Each lamp post is made up of 16 separate castings, plus the eagle atop. Completed in 2016, this work on the bronze components and marble pedestals allow viewers to again see the subtle details of the original sculpture.Įight bronze lamp posts were installed by the AOC on the marble pedestal of the Grant Memorial in 2019. These posts are replicas of fixtures first designed and installed by Edward Pearce Casey, the architect for the memorial's pedestal. The marble plinths were refurbished, with joints repointed and stains removed. Disfiguring corrosion was removed over 150 castings of missing or broken pieces, from swords to chain links, were reintegrated into the monument. In 2015, this captivating monument became the focus of a meticulous conservation effort. As described in the memorial's 1924 commemorative book, "truth and simplicity were the pervading traits which tinged Grant's other qualities." Shrady portrayed Grant as he often appeared on the battlefield, without a sword, shoulders slightly drooping, and crowned with a tilted, wide-brimmed Army hat. Shrady synthesized all available sources, including the death mask of Grant in the Smithsonian and the recollections of his own father, who was Grant's personal physician during his last illness. Similarly, in his likeness of Grant astride his Kentucky thoroughbred, he sought to capture an authentic portrait of the great military leader. In sculpting the Cavalry and the Artillery groups, Shrady used painstaking detail to convincingly convey the idea of individual soldiers' sacrifices in the context of a national purpose. In the Artillery Group, soldiers struggle to steer a cannon into position, but the team of three horses lunges and twists as the lead horse, reacting to a broken bridle, rears uncontrollably. Weapons, figures, animals and terrain merge into a riveting, visual narrative. In the Cavalry group, seven horsemen of the color squad of a cavalry regiment stampede onto the battlefield, about to crush a fallen soldier, one of their own. The symmetry and simplicity of the classically styled platform, suggesting a reviewing stand, provide an effective stage for the heightened realism of the bronze components. The monument is an essay in opposites, contrasting Grant's customary stillness while observing battles with the turbulence of the charging Cavalry and Artillery. Four lions lying with heads erect, guarding the flags of the Army and the United States, mark the corners of an imaginary pyramid's base and visually align with the life-size Cavalry Group on the north and Artillery Group on the south. At two and one-half times life size, the figure of Grant mounted on his horse forms the monument's apex atop a pedestal that is over twenty-two feet high. It is a remarkable achievement by a sculptor who, with little formal training, toiled twenty years to translate his grand vision into cast bronze. It marks the eastern terminus of the National Mall and faces the Lincoln Memorial almost two miles to the west, symbolically linking the President and the General who fought to save the Union.Ĭelebrated as the largest equestrian monument in the United States, it is 252 feet long by 71 feet wide by 44 feet high and is a tour de force of monumental sculpture. Grant Memorial honors the Civil War Commander of the Union Armies who was also a two-term President (1869–1877). Situated in Union Square at the edge of the reflecting pool and backed by the United States Capitol, the bronze and marble General Ulysses S. The bronze elements were restored in 2016 and lamp posts were installed in 2019. In late 2011, the care of the Grant Memorial was transferred from the National Park Service to the Architect of the Capitol (AOC).
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