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Show His work is LAURIE WILLIAMS SOWBY Da y HerakJ Speca: to Hi most sculpture well-know- are y'nie of the in the state. et many I'tahn aren't as familiar with his name a they are with hi work. Cynis Dallin. Spnngville's native son. in "one of the most under- - appreciated artists" I tah has created. said Sharon Gray, curator of education of the Springville Museum of Art. The museum houses Dallin's plaster Massasoit mode! of the heroic-siethat stands in hrone outside the I'tah as well as in State Capitol Massachusetts, where it overlooks d but his name is not well-know- n, Plymouth Bay plus the small plaster model of the Paul Revere statue that stands near the Old North Church in Boston. Dallin created the Angel Moroni that stands atop the Salt Lake Temple and the Briham Younz monument that stands nearby on Main Street. "'Cyrus Dallin and western sculptor Frederick Remington lived at the same time." explained Gray. "'It Dallin had been Remington, people would be pointing to the Angel Moroni and saying. 'That's the " But Dallin Remington sculpture.' and. in fact, was not as waited 40 vears to see his Paul well-know- n Revere unveiled. Born in Springville in 1861. Dallin showed early promise with 18. modeling clay. When he was friends collected money to send him to Boston to train with sculptor Truman A. Bartlett. He remained in the East most of his life, returning to Utah for occasional isils. At 26. he studied in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and the Academie Julian, and was so successful that he was accepted into the Paris Salon, where he won an honorable mention. Bv 1900. he was teaching at the Massachusetts State Normal Art based on the popu-lari- n School when Indian figures mounted of his he received a contract for a monumental statue of Paul Revere. (His Appeal to the Great Spirit is at the Museum of Fine Arts. h Boston. His Sacajawea is at the Springville Museum of Art.) He'd begun work in 1883 on a sculpture of Paul Revere warning of the British invasion, but the final version wasn't approved until IS99. And it was another 40 years before the statue was placed on the mall near the Old North Church, in 1940. Meanwhile. Dallin returned to I'tah in 1892 for the unveiling of his Momni that tops the Salt Lake Temple. The commission stemmed from Dallin's successful life-si- e plaster busts of LDS Church Pres. Woodruff. Wilford Q. George Cannon and Joseph F. Smith. According to an account in Springville writer Rell G. Francis' Let Justice Be Done. Dallin at first modestly declined Woodruffs invitation to sculpt the angel for the east spire of the almost completed Salt Lake Temple, "admitting he was not a Mormon and 'didn't believe, in angels." Nevertheless. Pres. Woodruff persuaded the "slender and polite sculptor to give the offer more thought and told him to seek the advice of his mother while on a visit to Springv ille. "Jane Dallin. of a devoutly religious nature, felt certain that Cyrus should accept the commission, but he again argued that he didn't believe in angels." Dallin's mother persuaded her son to read scriptures and studv Mormon theology to be able to interpret the character of the heavenly messenger who Mormons believe revealed the restored gospel to Joseph Smith. Dallin found the inspiration he was seeking in The Writings of Joseph Smith and in the words of John the Revelator in the Bible: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel..." Within a short time, he had produced sketches that were wholeheartedly accepted by the church's First presidency. He began the modeline at the Gardo House in downtown Salt Lake City, completing the original plaster model in October $9. According to Francis. "After an exhi full-sie- d 36-inc- A' - T ' P"vc csxrtes c &ywse Museum o in bronze outside the Utah State statue stands Capitol. The Springville Museum ot Art houses Dallin's plaster model of Cyrus E. Dallin's Massasoit the statue. 38 e bition at the Salt Lake Fair, a m)del was shipped to Salem. Ohio, where W.H. Muliins & Company constructed the colossal statue out of hammered copper, which was covered with 22 carat gold leaf." On April 6. 1892. 40.000 people gathered on Temple Square to witness the placement of the topstone and the statue of Moroni on top of the d figspire. As the massive ure was lowered into position on the stone ball of the spire. Pres. Woodruff turned to the artist and said. "Now. Mr. Dallin, do you believe in angelsT" full-siz- gold-leafe- 210-foot-hi- "Cyrus Da!!in and west-esculptor Frederick Remington lived at the same time ... If Dallin m had been Remington, people would be pointing to the Angel Moroni and saying, 'That's the Remington sculpture.' " Sharon Gray, curator of education of the Springville Museum of Art "Yes." Dallin replied. "I believe in angels because my mother is an angel." Years later, in a conversation with LDS Church official Levi Edgar Young, Dallin said. "I considered that my Angel Moroni brought me closer ever did. It to God than anything seemed to me that 1 came to know what it means to commune with angels from heaven." After some moments of quiet thought, he added. "We can only create in life what we are and what we think." Dallin w as next commissioned to create a monument to Brijham Voting and the Mormon Pioneers, w ith a bronze of the second LDS granite prophet atop a base. He began the work in January 1892. but if took the Church eight years to raise the funds to complete 1 it. In 1909. Dallin received a gold medal at the Paris Salon, an honor which had then been conferred upon only six American sculptors. He died at his home in Arlington Heights. Mass.. in 1943. at the age of 82 two years after finally seeing his Paul Revere statue unveiled. In his final trip west in 1942. he spoke these words: "I have received two college degrees ... besides medals galore, but my greatest honor of all is that I came from I'tah." |