As U. S. golf professionals watch for lucrative tournaments, so U. S. sculptors keep their eyes on the many fine arts committees which hand out the jobs of making America's monuments. Big assignments for sculpture come to U. S. artists by direct commission, through open competition or through competitions limited by invitation. Last week a handsome plum fell to Mrs. Laura Gardin Fraser, Manhattan sculptor famed for her medal designs, when her model won in a limited competition for a $100,000 Baltimore bronze of Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan ("Stonewall") Jackson. Still groggy from a sinus operation, Mrs. Fraser was cheered by her success, knew she had a good two years' work ahead of her.
Money for the monument was left by the late J. Henry Ferguson, bachelor Baltimore banker and socialite, who described Generals Jackson & Lee as "my boyish heroes," specified in his bequest: "On one of the [statue's] sides, I want it to read: They were great generals and Christian soldiers and waged war like gentlemen.' These are my own words, and I only ask the simple word under them, 'Ferguson.'" Mrs. Fraser's winning model, in accordance with the competition's rules, showed the generals as they parted before Chancellorsville, on May 2, 1863. General Jackson's head is thrust slightly forward as though he were calling a last remark to his listening commander. Eight days later Stonewall Jackson was dead.
Awarded under the rules of the National Sculpture Society, an association whose purpose is to encourage U. S. carvers and chiselers, the Baltimore money will not all be clear gain for Sculptor Fraser. Out of the $100,000 she must furnish materials, studio rent, wages of assistants and workmen, possibly will show only a small profit when the bronze generals are finally cast and unveiled in Baltimore's Wyman Park. Some other U. S. sculptors reported busy last week were:
Leo Friedlander (Doorway sculpture for Manhattan's RCA Building) was working in his Scarsdale, N. Y. studio on two big equestrian groups for the Arlington Memorial Bridge at Washington, D. C. Sculptor Friedlander won this assignment in a limited competition held by Washington's Committee of Fine Arts.
Adolph Alexander Weinman (Frieze and bronze groups for Chicago Elks Memorial) saw the big bronze doors for the American Academy of Arts & Letters Building in Manhattan taking form in his studio at Forest Hills, L. I. Last year this job came to Sculptor Weinman as a direct commission.
Robert Aitken (Supreme Court Building pediment) was rounding out his fourth year of work on the direct commission for a frieze in the Columbus, Ohio Gallery of Fine Arts.
Charles Keck (U. S. S. Maine Memorial) was fashioning an 18-ft. Celtic cross to back the figure of the late Father Francis P. Duffy, famed Wartime chaplain of the 69th New York Regiment. This $15,000 job, to adorn Manhattan's Times Square, was given direct to Sculptor Keck by the Father Duffy Memorial Committee and approved by the New York Municipal Art Commission.
Georg John Lober, onetime vice president of the National Sculpture Society, was preparing to unveil his privately commissioned William Cook Memorial at Port Chester, N. Y.