Cyrus Edwin Dallin


Cyrus Edwin Dallin was an American sculptor best known for his depictions of Native Americans. He created more than 260 works, including the equestrian statue of Paul Revere in Boston, Massachusetts; the Angel Moroni atop Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah; and his most famous work, Appeal to the Great Spirit, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He was also an Olympic archer.

Biography

Dallin, the son of Thomas and Jane Dallin, was born in Springville, Utah Territory, although his parents had left The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before their marriage. At age 19, he moved to Boston to study sculpture with Truman Howe Bartlett. He studied in Paris, with Henri Chapu and at the Académie Julian.
In 1883, he entered the competition for an equestrian statue of Paul Revere for Boston, Massachusetts. He won the competition and received a contract, but six versions of his model were rejected. The fifth model was not accepted because of fundraising problems. The seventh version was accepted in 1939 and the full-size statue was unveiled in 1940.
Dallin Converted to Unitarianism and initially turned down the offer to sculpt the angel Moroni for the spire of the LDS Church's Salt Lake Temple. He later accepted the commission and, after finishing the statue said, "My angel Moroni brought me nearer to God than anything I ever did." His statue became a symbol for the LDS Church and was the model for other angel Moroni statues on the spires of LDS Church temples.
In Boston, Dallin became a colleague of Augustus St. Gaudens and a close friend of John Singer Sargent. He married Vittoria Colonna Murray in 1891, and returned to Utah to work on The Angel Moroni. He taught for a year at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, while completing his Sir Isaac Newton for the Library of Congress. In 1897, he traveled to Paris, and studied with Jean Dampt. He entered a Don Quixote statuette in the Salon of 1897, and The Medicine Man in the Salon of 1899 and the Exposition Universelle. The couple moved to Arlington, Massachusetts in 1900, where they lived for the rest of their lives and raised three sons.
At the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, Dallin competed in archery, winning the bronze medal in the team competition. He finished ninth in the Double American round and 12th in the Double York round.
From 1899 to 1941, he was a member of the faculty of Massachusetts Normal Art School. In 1912, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1930.
When he died in 1944 his life was celebrated in a Unitarian service.

''The Epic of the Indian''

Dallin created a four-piece equestrian series called The Epic of the Indian, consisting of Signal of Peace, or “The Welcome” ; The Medicine Man, or “The Warning” ; Protest of the Sioux, or “The Defiance” ; and Appeal to the Great Spirit.
A Signal of Peace was exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and was installed in Chicago's Lincoln Park in 1894. The Medicine Man was exhibited at the 1899 Paris Salon, and the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, where it won a gold medal. It was installed in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park in 1903.
The full-size staff version of Protest of the Sioux was exhibited at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, where it won a gold medal. The mounted brave defiantly shaking his fist at an enemy was never cast as a full-size bronze, and survives only in statuette form. A one-third-size bronze version, cast in 1986, is at the Springville Museum of Art in Springville, Utah.
Appeal to the Great Spirit became an icon of American art, and is Dallin's most famous work. The full-size version was cast in bronze in Paris, and won a gold medal at the 1909 Paris Salon. It was installed outside the main entrance to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1912. Smaller versions of the work are in numerous American museums and in the permanent collection of the White House.
In 1929, a full-sized bronze version of Appeal to the Great Spirit—personally overseen and approved by Dallin— was installed in Muncie, Indiana, at the intersection of Walnut and Granville Streets, and is considered by many Munsonians to be a symbol of their city. A one-third-size plaster version was given to Tulsa, Oklahoma's Central High in 1923. It stood in the school's main hall until 1976, when Central closed its doors. In 1985, that plaster was used to cast a one-third-size bronze version, which is now in Woodward Park, at the intersection of 21st & Peoria Streets. There is also a version at St. John University in Wisconsin.

Legacy

The Jefferson Cutter House in Arlington, Massachusetts, is a museum devoted to his works.
An elementary school in Arlington is named for him.
The Taylor-Dallin House in Arlington, Massachusetts, where Dallin and his family lived is a privately owned residence and has not been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
More than 30 of Dallin's works are on display at the Springville Museum of Art in his birthplace of Springville, Utah. The Dallin House at 253 S. 300 East in Springville, Utah, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Dallin's papers are at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

Selected works