Checking out the work of D.C. French

We went to the Concord Museum following worship today.  The main exhibit was about the work of Daniel Chester French.  We saw all the models he did, including the Lincoln Memorial and the Minuteman.  He had a real interest in birds and we saw an owl, a dove, and other examples.  He was really good at sculpting wings.  We also saw a drawing he made when he was five years old of a bird, possibly a quail.  He wrote “Danny French wrote this bird.”

Naomi and I also got to work with a sculptor named Linda Sweeny.  We worked with sculpting clay.  She asked us to make something we really like, and so I first made a double decker fountain.  We put water in the fountain to test it out.  The fountain held the water!  I also made a bowl with a knife, fork, and spoon, because I like food.  I left the fountain there but brought the bowl and things home.

Can you tell which hand belongs to Lincoln and which belongs to Daniel Chester French?

We learned that Daniel Chester French had access to a true impression of Lincoln’s hands.  One of the hands was clenched and the other was not.  French didn’t like the clenched hand and so for the Lincoln Memorial he made a model of his own hand not clenched.  So on the Lincoln Memorial the right hand is Lincoln’s hand (from the impression), but the left hand is Daniel Chester French’s hand!