Youth and Education

Known later in life as "the Dean of American Sculptors," American sculptor, Lee Oskar Lawrie, (18771963) was born in Rixdorf, Germany, and brought to America as an infant, (or at age 4 or 5, depending on whose research you believe.)

After arriving in the states, his mother (and he) settled in Chicago. As an adolescent, his study of sculpture began at age 14 in the studio of Richard H. Park of Chicago.

Sometime, while at about this same age, Lawrie was a boarding student at St. Vincent de Paul school in Baltimore. While living there, he would sketch strangers on the street, then try to sell them his drawings.

Lawrie's education as a sculptor began in 1893 when he answered an ad “Boy Wanted” placed by Henry Clay Park, to enlarge sculpture for Chicago's 1893 World Columbian Exposition celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing in the New World.

His first independent commission came in 1900 at the Deborah Cook Sayles Library in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

His next major work that I have documented is a lifesized figure of an Indian maiden, entitled "South Dakota". The work appeared at the St. Louis' 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The fair consisted of exhibits by states that emerged out of the Louisiana Purchase.

Lawrie studied his craft in Chicago, New York and Boston under some of the most influential sculptors of his day: A. Phiminster Proctor, Augustus Saint. Gaudens, Philip Martiny, Charles, Lopez, William Partridge, and W. Clark Noble.

Lawrie joined Yale's school of fine arts in 1908, later graduating in 1910 with a B.F.A.

There he taught sculpture, both as a student and as an instructor from 1908 through 1918. Sometime around 1912, he is also credited with having taught at Harvard.

In 1919 while still at Yale, he designed sculpture for the Harkness Memorial tower on the Quadrangle. His designs included patriots known as "the Worthies,"to inspire students for generations to follow.

Lawrie first met bertrand Grosvenor Goodhue in Boston in 1895, while working in the studios of Henry Kiston. Their friendship and collaboration lasted until Goodhue's death in 1924.

In 1932, Lawrie received an honorary Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale.

Sources:

AskART Biography for Lawrie, Lee. http://www.askart.com/Biography.asp , visited February 21, 2003.

Mirabella, Stephen, “Lee Lawrie: Sculptor of Ideas,” American Arts Quarterly, Summer/Fall 2000, p. 14.

McCready, Eric Scott, The Nebraska State Capitol: Its Design, Background and Influence., Nebraska History, Nebraska State Historical Society, Volume 55, No. 3, Fall 1974, p. 378.

Mirabella, Stephen, “Lee Lawrie: Sculptor of Ideas,” American Arts Quarterly, Summer/Fall 2000, p. 14.

http://www.library.yale.edu/archives300/exhibits/building/part5/TC5.htm , visited February 21, 2003.

Mirabella, Stephen, “Lee Lawrie: Sculptor of Ideas,” American Arts Quarterly, Summer/Fall 2000p. 15.