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PLAIN-DEALER.
CLEVELAND, OHIO.
JUN 16 1897

When the New York park commissioners refuse to accept the statue of Pan they seem to overlook the fact that the old musician is the piper who played before Moses—and a mighty long time before, too.

EVENING TELEGRAM.
PHILADELPHIA, P.A.
JUN 12 1897

PAN REJECTED.

The statue by George G. Barnard for Which the Central Park Commissioners Have No Place.

One of the most distinguished sculptors of America is Mr. George Grey Barnard, and one of his most distinguished productions is his colossal figure of Pan. executed on commission for a Gothamite patron of the Fine Arts. The figure was exhibited in the Paris Salon, Mr. Barnard being located in Paris wen it was modelled, and it was received there with high commendation, which aided materially in promoting the young artist's reputation. The work has since attracted favorable attention wherever seen, and has called forth much praise from critics whose praise means fame.
M. Thiebault-Sisson, art critic of Le Temps, Paris, says in a review of the Salon: "We have a newcomer, George Grey Barnard, who possesses all the qualities of a great master. He belongs to that young and virile America, whose efforts are manifested in various forms for the most part unexpected. He demonstrates with a singular power his contempt for conventional methods, and his passionate longing for the new and creative in art manifests itself in everything he puts his hand to. To him all nature is now, and he has great breadth of conception. The heroic alone seems capable of attracting him, but an heroic special in its kind; special also in his manner of treating it. He does not show us one man battling with another, his conception has a far deeper meaning and lesson, man struggling with the elements; man fighting with the inner man, with the baser instincts of his nature. He has witnessed the overthrow and fall of the noblest in life; the highest aspirations towards good, stifled by the meanest brute force in humanity; and it has been his desire to embody in a colossal group one phase of these innumerable struggles. Full on the fallen moralbeing instinct plants a triumphant foot; but the victory is doubtful, the victim of an hour revolts; he trembles, he suffers in explanation of his fault, but he will rise again stronger and wiser for the contest. In the realization of this conception the arts has exhibited a fire, and given proof of knowledge which places him very high in his art. Possibly the composition may lack a little of that precision and clearness that conventional allegory requires, but in spite of that the group has movement and life, and the execution is as bold as it is finely shaded. All is said with majestic energy, an energy that knows its power and scorns useless details.
A writer in Home and Country for May speaks of Pan as follows: "The plaster figure of Pan is remarkable in a somewhat different manner, for here we find not the energy of suffering, but perfect peace and repose, and with the figure equally well modelled, showing an extraordinary knowledge of anatomical derail and the careful and thorough technique which comes only from conscientious study."
The gentleman for whom the Pan was designed was so pleased with Mr. Barnard's conception of the Syrian god that he ordered a bronze casting of the figure for presentation to Central Park. For reasons best known to themselves, if known to anybody, the Park Commissions has rejected the gift. The only reason assigned by the Commission is that there is not room enough for the figure in the Park, and they cannot find a place to put it.