| Show A hCULPlOilJs CAREER Taunt Thompson the lamous American Sculptor in the Jefferson Market 1olice Special to THE HGK LDLxamlner Dispatch New Yom Dec 5Taunt Thompson the sculptor and academician stood yesterday yester-day in the pen of the Jeffoison Market police court One would have hardly singled him out as different in any way from his companions in misery His unshaved un-shaved face was adorned with a moustache i and long thin imperial his clothing was I of common quality and ho wore a soiled flannel shirt Yet his artistic hand has chiselled many famous pieces of sculpture Thompson had been drinking with wore than usual abandon for the last two or three weeks and Tuesday I Tues-day night had an attack of delirium tremens After smashing things up pretty general he was seized with the idea that 10 was being pursued by beetles aud barr ended his door to keep them out A lolicemans aid was invoked the door was broken open and the sculptor was irrosted A friend of Ihompsons appeared against him and he was sentenced to Blackwelli island for a month at tho expiration or which time he will be examined as to his ni f have known Thompson since So4 said his friend and am about the only friend he has left It is another case of a man of genius sacrificing friends fame and toitune to drink JCnompson is connected with some of the best people in New York He has been drinking to excess for fifteen years His wife who is a sister to Bishop Potter still sticks to him although they have not lived together for years Thompson Thomp-son was an Irish lad who came to this country when very young He studied anatomj in the Albany Medical college in Iboo aud later studied sculpture after which be line to New York Soon becoming becom-ing a member of the Academy of Design ben he went to Florence Italy in 1S70 taking his wife and their two children His life there was an odd one He kept aloof from other artists and sculptors Ho would go on sprees dospite the most earnest efforts of nis wife to prevent him He had many orders from American patrons pat-rons vvhilotneie but neglected his work This was part duo t drink and partly bemuse be-muse of his habits of procrastination I have known him to spend six or eight months over a small piece that ho could esilj have done in two 10lths Thompson son vs very intimate with the elder Bennett Ben-nett of the Htrnii and made a bust of Elaine a character in lennvsons Idyls of the King for Tames Gordon Bennett who has it in his housa m Paris now Ine statue of Napoleon now in the Metropolitan tan Museum of Art is his work as also is I head of William Cullou Brjant in the same place Perhaps his greatest work ian i-an equestrian statue of General Burnisdc It is 13 feet l inches high and has been pronounced bj experts to bo one of the most excellent pieces of equestrian statuary statu-ary ever produced bj an American sculptor i sculp-tor I was made for the state of Rhode Island He was not prolific but his work was of the kind that would make him famous if he had not taker to drink Among other works of I hompson are the statues of General Sedgwick at Wes Point Gcncial Dupont unu General Scott in Washington a head of Morse T bust of the elder Booth for Edwin Booth the statue of Abraham Picrson first president of Yale college for which Thompson received re-ceived the honorary degree of A M and a bust of Govcinor bchujler Crosby of Mnntnn 5 |
