Description
In contrast with the more intimate bust sculpted in 1879, Daniel Chester French’s impressive marble statue of Emerson seated is a clear example of the artist’s public work. Bearing more than a little resemblance to his seated Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial at Washington, D.C. (unveiled in 1922), the seated Emerson was designed to be viewed from a distance. It depicts Emerson as the personification of the idealistic philosopher, thoughtful, serene, benevolent. While French’s earlier bust was sculpted from life, the seated Emerson was carved long after the death of its subject.
The statue presents a middle-aged Emerson, at the height of his powers, sitting in a chair, wearing his favorite dressing gown. The folds of fabric over the back of the chair are beautifully worked. There are pine branches on the side of the base—symbolic in Emerson’s writings of the majesty and mystery of nature.
The seated Emerson was commissioned by a Concord committee appointed at town meeting in 1896 to erect a memorial statue to Emerson at some suitable public place in town. The committee was not authorized to spend any town money—all funds had to be raised through private donation. The fund-raising proceeded slowly. French didn’t really start work on the piece until after 1910. The statue was ceremonially unveiled on May 23, 1914, and has dominated what is now the Concord Free Public Library lobby ever since.
Originally placed where the entrance to the circulation area is currently located, the seated Emerson was moved to its present position as a consequence of library expansion and renovation in the 1960s.
