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Show UNCOMMON AMERICANS BV ElmO Western Newspaper ScOtt IFatSOn Union She Modeled Lincoln TN THE rotunda of the United 1 States Capitol at Washington stands a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Lin-coln. Among all the sculptured likenesses like-nesses of the Great Emancipator this one is unique. It is the only one which was modeled from life and it is the work of a young girl. Vinnie Ream was her name and she was born in Wisconsin in 1847. As a girl she amused herself by sketching the Indians whom she saw when her father, a surveyor, took her with him on his trips in the West. They were crude sketches but an old Italian. who saw them recognized her latent talent and encouraged en-couraged her. When she was fourteen her father secured a position for her as a copyist copy-ist in the post office department at' $50 a month. She became acquainted ac-quainted with Clark Mills, the famous fa-mous sculptor, and while watching him at work, exclaimed, "Oh, I could do that if I had some clay!" Mills told her to help herself and he was delighted with the progress which she made. Then Viimie Ream conceived the idea of modeling President Lincoln from life. When this was first suggested sug-gested to him he refused, but after talking to the girl and becoming impressed with her earnestness, he gave his consent with the understanding under-standing that she was to come to the White House every afternoon during his rest period. She was not to talk and he was to sit, walk, or lie down to take a nap, as his mood dictated. So for five months she spent part of every afternoon in his study. As he lay on the couch she took life masks of his face and hands. As he walked about or sat at his desk, she sketched his figure "again and again. After Lincoln's assassination congress con-gress decided to erect a statue in his memory and asked sculptors to submit sketches. Many famous artists art-ists responded but the work of this sixteen-year-old girl was the one selected. se-lected. In 1869 congress advanced her $5,000 and she went abroad to study and complete the statue. After nearly two years of steady work she finished it and it was unveiled un-veiled in 1871. When the statue was placed in the rotunda of the Capitol Capi-tol an old servant who had lived in the White House exclaimed "the real Lincoln has returned to us." Vinnie Ream later married Lieut. Richard L. Hoxie but continued her work as a sculptor until her death in 1914. She made many other statues stat-ues and modeled medallions and busts of many notables, both here and abroad. But she is best remembered re-membered as the only sculptor who ever modeled Lincoln from life and the pioneer woman sculptor of America. Soldier-Painter T F YOU think of a painter as an impractical idealist, revise that view before applying it to Chtrles Willson Peale. Born in Maryland in 1741 he was apprenticed to a saddler sad-dler at the age of thirteen and was such a good workman that he won his freedom by the time he was twenty. Then he went into business busi-ness for himself and later formed a partnership with a chaisemaker who promptly absconded with all of the firm's money. To get out of debt -Peale next tried clock and watch making and set himself up as a silversmith. Becoming interested in painting, Peale took lessons from a Swedish-American Swedish-American artist and paid for them with a saddle which lie had made. Next he spent two years studying under Copley in Boston and then went to Lngland to learn more from the famous Benjamin West. Returning to this country a few years before the Revolution, he began be-gan painting portraits of Colonial celebrities, one of which was destined des-tined to make him famous. It was the picture of a young colonel in the Virginia militia named George Washington. At the outbreak of the Revolution Revolu-tion Peale, who was an ardent patriot, pa-triot, organized a company of militia mi-litia and became a captain. For the next three years he mixed painting and soldiering winning distinction in both. Next he went into politics poli-tics and in 1779 and 1780 served as a member of the Pennsylvania assembly. as-sembly. After the war, Peale gathered together to-gether all of the portraits of Revolutionary Revo-lutionary leaders he had painted-including painted-including several of Washington-and Washington-and started a picture gallery in his home, which was so popular uad l SCck larS" quarters. In 1802 he opened the famous Penle museum on the second floor of In-dependence In-dependence hall. There he exhibited exhib-ited not only his paintings but also a remarkable collection of natural history specimens he had collected At the ago of eighty-one Peale turned from portraiture to paint re. ligious pictures When he died In 1827 he left behind him a Col,el!n of 2G9 portraits and historical scones as a memorial to one of America's greatest painters and also one of her most versatile geniuses. |