 Contact 135 East Main Street Bozeman, MT 59715 Tel: (406) 586-3636 Fax: (406) 587-8279 Email: tom.n@nygardgallery.com Web Site: www.nygardgallery.com Directions to the Gallery | Herman Atkins MacNeil (1866 - 1947)Hermon Atkins MacNeil was one of the sculptors most influential in winning worldwide recognition of the American Indian as a valid artistic theme. His statues depicting the Indian became an introduction for Americans and Europeans into a truly American subject matter for the arts. Born in Massachusetts, MacNeil received his formal training in the arts at the Normal Art School in Boston in 1886. Upon graduation in 1886 he moved to Cornell, New York and taught modeling for three years at the university. Seeking continued education, he followed the path of many artist of his day and left for Europe in 1888. In Paris he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and at the Julien Academy. In 1891, he was back in the United States working as an assistant on the architectural sculpture for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Settling in Chicago, MacNeil taught at the Art Institute of Chicago and opened a studio there where he began his work depicting the American Indian. His first introduction to the subject came through Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. During the Worlds Fair, Buffalo Bill’s troupe performed and MacNeil took every opportunity to see the show and sketch the ceremonies and rituals of Indian life. Inspired by the subjects, he made subsequent trips to the southwest to see the Indians in their element. Back in Europe in 1895, MacNeil was in Rome having won the Rinehart Roman Scholarship. While living there, all expenses paid, he put into bronze several myths and dances of the Indian tribes he visited while in the states. His first creation was the Return of the Snakes, depicting a nude Indian running through the prickly-pear cactus carrying two handfuls of rattlesnakes. An Indian priest, having used the snakes in a tribal ceremony to pray for rain to save the crops, is running down the mesa to free the snakes so that they may convey the prayers for rain to heaven. At the turn of the century MacNeil was back in the states, bringing with him his fame from achievements in Europe. For the next fifteen years he focused on the many commissions he received for exhibitions throughout the states. His works were entered in to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo (1901); the Charleston Exposition in South Carolina (1902); the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis (1904); the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon (1905); and the Pan-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco (1915). A highly successful artist, MacNeil died at his home on Long Island Sound where he had worked for forty-seven years. Click any image to enlarge it to see more information about the work. |
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