This week in the little French village of La Napoule in the Alpes Maritimes, townspeople and fishermen streamed across the Place Henry Clews, through the great gate of the Chateau de la Napoule, to the carved and vaulted mausoleum within. They went to pay their respects to their benefactor, buried just two years. Four thousand miles away, in Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum, some of Henry Clews's countrymen also paid their respects, by viewing a memorial exhibition of his sculpture.
Henry Clews was a poor little rich boy turned artist. Born and bred in a big Manhattan house, son of an English-born international banker,...