WOMAN IN ART
statue of James Monroe, fifth President of the United States. An Eastern writer of note said of it: "Miss Bracken has made many fine portrait busts, and not a few statues, but the simplicity of the man standing in close coat and knee breeches, his hand resting on a pedestal which supports a globe, is well managed and dignified. This work will be one of a collection of statues of important men which is to enrich the front of the Hall of Fame at St. Louis. Miss Bracken is the only woman whose sculpture will find a place in this Pantheon. Her work honors Woman, and more, it honors Sculpture."
A splendid portrait relief of Emerson is one of her strongest, as is also one of Perez Hastings Field, another of Charles R. Crane, of Chicago, and many others.
Other works are a "Young Pan," a "Nymph" gracefully kneeling toward a water-course of which she would drink from one hand, the other holding back her waving hair as she bends forward.
A strong work, though small, represents "Napoleon in Exile." The great man is sunken deeply in his chair, while he contemplates a small globe of the world which he holds in his hands. The futility of personal ambition was never more wonderfully portrayed.
"The Tree of Life" is a design for a holy water font, full of potent suggestion and deep religious sentiment.
A friend says, "This sculptor believes that all art should be spontaneous, and that it should come from the emotion or thought of the artist, who should never force himself to work at it when the creative impulse is not there. The true artist does not make art his main business in life, for if he does he becomes narrow, one-sided, thrown out of all sympathy with the Divine Realities."
Mrs. Went has modeled for her art from the bronze-like children of sun and sand, and cast into bronze playfellows, descendants perhaps, of the one-time cliff dwellers.
Julia Bracken Went has long been a member of the Chicago Society of Artists, and the Municipal Art League of Chicago; also of the Federation Art Association and the Three Arts Club of Los Angeles, California. Her awards and prizes have been many: The Municipal Art League of Chicago, 1898 and 1905; a gold medal, Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. A sculptural group of Art, Science and History in the Los Angeles
234
