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The
description “a museum of sculpture” undoubtedly brings to
mind a mental picture of a large classical building with
gallery after gallery packed with statues. Nothing could be
farther from that static image than the unique museum known
as
Brookgreen
Gardens
of American Sculpture. Rather, picture in your mind’s eye
hundreds of statues each in their own beautiful, outdoor
setting surrounded by dogwoods and magnolias or set in the
center of pools with splashing fountains.
Brookgreen combines the beauty of nature with the beauty of
creative works by outstanding American sculptors. As
visitors wander along the winding paths that lead to one
magnificent work of sculpture after another, they experience
the joy of seeing great works of art in garden settings.
There is something for everyone—art lovers and nature
lovers.
The
location of this beautiful museum is in South Carolina,
where the temperate climate makes it possible to enjoy a
visit during all seasons of the year. It is situated on the
coastal highway twenty miles south of Myrtle Beach and
ninety miles North of Charleston. The property extends from
the Atlantic Ocean to the Inland Waterway and encompasses
9,000 acres of which 400 acres are highly landscaped for the
sculpture gardens. It was created in 1931 by the benefaction
of the philanthropist, Archer Milton Huntington and his
wife, the famous sculptor Anna Hyatt, as a not-for-profit
cultural institution open to the public. The original
property comprised four large plantations: Brookgreen,
Springfield, Laurel Hill and The Oaks, all created by land
grants from King George II.
The
sculpture collection, which was started by the Huntingtons,
continues to grow year by year. Important works are
purchased, others are commissioned to be created by
sculptors for the gardens, and still others are gifts to
Brookgreen. The works—all of realistic sculpture—encompass a
time frame of over 150 years, from the early nineteenth
century until today. The collection consists of more than
540 pieces of sculpture by over 240 American sculptors. It
is by far the largest and most important collection of
American sculpture in the world.
Among the
hundreds of sculptors represented at Brookgreen are Hiram
Powers, John Quincy Adams Ward, Daniel Chester French,
Frederic Remington, Donald DeLue, Beatrice Fenton, Gaston
Lachaise, Edward McCartan, Elie Nadelman, Gertrude
Vanderbilt Whitney, R. Hinton Perry, and Lorado Taft.
Following is a very small sampling of the collection which
demonstrates its great quality and diversity:
One of
the most famous pieces of American sculpture is the Diana
by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the artist’s only nude female
figure. It was commissioned as an ideal figure to top the
tower of the original
Madison
Square
Garden
in New York City. The slightly over life-size model of 1894
from which the original statue was enlarged is the basis for
the bronze casting in
Brookgreen
Gardens.
The End
of the Trail,
created by James Earle Fraser in 1915, has become an
emotional symbol of the change in lifestyle of the Native
American Indian brought about by the Western migration of
the European immigrants. This bronze equestrian statuette
successfully captures the pathos of the dejected, windblown
rider and his horse. Fraser was a student of Agustus
Saint-Gaudens in
Paris
and returned with him as his studio assistant in
New York City.
The
sculptor who most successfully combined the simplification
of form and at the same time utilized the mass of his
figures was Paul Manship. Years ago when asked what single
event influenced his art the most, he readily answered that
it was a trip to Olympia in Greece, while he was a student
at the American Academy in Rome before World War I. There he
saw statues by the ancient Greek sculptor Phidias for the
pediment of the Temple of Zeus. It certainly is true; we can
see the influence of Phidias in all of Manship’s work.
Brookgreen Gardens has many pieces of his sculpture, but the
largest is the huge bronze sundial with the gnomon 40 feet
in length, Time and the Fates of Man, created in
1939. In it the three female figures spin the thread of
life, measure it and cut it. The passage of time symbolizes
a person’s life cycle.
Anna
Hyatt was an outstanding sculptor by the time she married
Archer Huntington in 1923. Naturally, a good number of her
sculptures are in Brookgreen Gardens. Undoubtedly the most
striking piece is the Fighting Stallions, a huge
over-life-size aluminum group created in 1950. She was
fascinated by horses, studied them very well, and preferred
equestrian monuments such as her Joan of arc of 1915
which stands on Riverside Drive in New York. The French
government made her a chevalier of the Legion of
Honor in 1922.
The
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York commissioned Carl
Milles in 1949 to created The Fountain of the Muses;
it was installed in the museum in 1955, just six months
before the sculptor’s death. It was very popular with the
Metropolitan’s visitors, but, unfortunately, structural
problems developed due to the great weight of the water in
the pool, and the bronze sculptures had to be placed in
storage. Brookgreen Gardens was chosen as the most
appropriate site for its relocation, so it was purchased in
1982 and opened to visitors in 1984. Carl Milles wrote: “Of
the eight fountain figures round and in the pool—five of
these represent the arts—men who have been drinking the holy
water from the Goddess Aganippe’s well. Famous water helping
the musical artists as well as all artists to get the right
spirit to work and create. Here we are seeing them rushing
home, filled with enthusiasm—each one with his new ideas
forcing them to hurry.” The five sculptures of the artists
are the poet, the architect, the musician, the painter and
the sculptor. A most appropriate fountain for
Brookgreen
Gardens.
Contemporary realism in sculpture is well represented, too,
as in the work of the sculptor, Charles Parks, and his
bronze High Tide created in 1985. Stylization and
idealism are not present; rather the emphasis is on a
realistic treatment of the over life-size boy, his clothes
and the three sea gulls flying around him as he sits on a
piling in a pond.
Brookgreen
Gardens
is immense and full of treasures, but, hopefully this
introductory overview has aroused your interest. The
sculpture and the gardens are there to be experienced
directly and enjoyed. So, go see for yourself that
Brookgreen
Gardens
is, indeed, a different kind of museum of sculpture.
Joseph
Veach Noble is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of
Brookgreen Gardens, Director Emeritus of the Museum of the
City of New York and formerly Vice-Director for
Administration of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The address of
Brookgreen Gardens: US Highway 17
South Murrells Inlet, South Carolina 29576-5101 Phone:
1-800-849-1931
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