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We have a new comer, 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 new, and he has great breadth of conception.
The heroic alone seems capable of attracting him, but an heroic special in its kind; special also is his manner of treating it.  He does not show us one 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 toward 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 moral being instinct plans a triumphant foot; but the victory is doubtful, the victim of an hour revolts: he trembles, he suffers in expiation of his fault, but he will rise again stronger and wiser for the contest.
In the realization of this conception the artist has exhibited a fire, and given proof of knowledge which places his 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.
Barnard has quite a different manner of interpreting man's struggles with the elements.  The fragments in which he represents these struggles are parts of a decorate fire place, an order from Norway, which is not yet finished.  Each fragment illustrates some one of the episodes of the wars of man and the elements, such as the old Scandinavian Sagas sing of.  In the two portions that we have before us, man is fighting with the watery element, typified by the formidable serpent Hidhoegur.
The struggle between them is terrible indeed.  Man is but half disengaged from matter, and the serpent is winding itself around him, strangling him in its folds.  But man, in frenzy, struggles still, anger adding to this strength, every nerve and muscle is strained for one supreme effort, and victory bought by untold agonies, is near.
Study these sculptures attentively and you will find them to be works of astonishing genius.  If the artist has started from principles found in the French Masters, he has developed all that is essentially his own, and that with an extraordinary power.
Unless I am greatly mistaken, Mr. Barnard is destined to make no small stir in the world.-Extract Le Temps, Thiebault-Sisson, Paris, May 7, 1894.

rock." would be taken for many as [[?]] Rodin.-Paris Patrie, 24 April, 94.
Sig. PONLET.

The interesting works at the Salon are few, but some of them are of an originality strangely moving.  For example, the fragments of a tomb by Geo. Grey Barnard, symbolizing Life drawn unto death, the torses half disengaged from the block of marble, an his group, "I feel two natures within me," the struggle between the Ideal and Real, which is powerfully modelled - 
Telegraphe-5 Mai, Paris.  Signed, DEHAN.


Mr. Barnard is possessed of very great qualities. The first of which is the freshness of eternal youth.  We feel the warmth of life itself in all his sculptures, especially in his large group called "I fee two natures within Me," and in his Norwegian group, etc., etc.-Extract from long article, Paris Figaro, April 24.  Signed, GILLE.

The statues of Mr. Geo. Barnard are beautifully modelled and beautifully conceived, but not easy to be understood by the uncultured.-Paris Antorite, April 25.
Signed, MECENE.

By the superb inspiration, strength of thought, and fire in execution, that are shown in his work, we are drawn to a new comer, Geo. Grey Barnard.  Bodies in agony and limbs full of suffering are all treated in a superb manner.  These statute are the works of a young genius whose power time alone will disclose-Extract, Art et la Vie.  Signed SOULIER.

The grand compositions, inspired in the manner of Michael Angelo, are due to the chisels of Mr. Bernard.  In searching for the art which he seems to obey, one is struck at once with the ways he throws aside the traditional school as if searching a new art, that many say in impossible in sculpture, as it is so against its traditional severity.  It is singularly difficult and dangerous for us to give an opinion about a movement only in its germ, and we wait, in confidence that these hardy pioneers may carry out their new school more fully.  We shall then ben able to judge it with our habitual impartiality.
Extract, Journal Paris Pays, 31 May.
Signed, HAVARD.

Mr. Bernard's sculpture is original and poetical.-Extract, Paris, 24 April, Paris.

Mr. Barnard an American of New York has five statues or groups giving proof of his talent in a most successful way.  A beautiful group-"I feel two natures struggling within me," and the reduction of a tomb, the figures loosing themselves in a block of marble-also parts of a chimney and a bust, the whole making a successful exposition.-Extract, Autorite 27 April, Paris.
Signature, MACENE.

pretation of Death-"This life reclaimed by relentless matter-Earth."-Extract, Republican de l'Ouest. France, 12 May, 1894.  Signed, GHIL.

Mr. Barnard gives us proof of great power in his group called, "I feel two natures within Me."  One must have in sculpture an extraordinary heroism to attach such marbles as these are and bring them to such completion.  We congratulate Mr. Bernard.-Extract, Liberte, Paris 23 May, 94.

We wish to cite five or six of the best sculptures at the Salon.  First among them Mr. Barnard, whose sculptures in marble are most beautifully treated.-Prese Agricole, May 6. Paris.

In speaking only of the Statuary at the Salon, we find by Mr. Barnard, a large group in marble.  "I feel two natures struggling within me," a splendid piece of sculpture.  The two male figures in the bas-relief-for Norway-are well modelled.  But the attempts to leave the rough back ground, we do not think worthy of his talent.-Presse, 25 April.
Signed, VOSSELOT.

We wish you to look through the work of Mr. Barnard, who is much and diversely represented  Do not neglect to see his two figures most gracefully modeled, searching in vain to unite their hands through the dark.-Extract, Mode Pratique, 27 April, Paris.

Mr. Barnard has a series of marbles beautifully chiseled, yet leaving parts in the rough.-Extract Genis, Paris 16 June.

There are several groups by the hand of Mr. Barnard.  He has the qualities of Michael Angelo and Rodin, through which one sees that the original personality of the artist is maturing.-Extract, Le Rappel, 28 April, Paris.
Sig., FREMINE.

Mr. Bernard's exhibit in sculpture at the Salon is well worth seeing.  It is full of ideas and imagination.
Extract, La Paix, Paris, 30 April.

The six pieces of sculpture exhibited by Mr. Barnard, are very important creations, the outcome of energetic modeling, and of a chisel full of nerve and certainty.-Extract, Paix Sycial, Paris, 22 May.

Mr. Barnard reminds one in his art sometimes too naively of Michael Angelo and Rodin.  In one group he symbolizes the mysterious dualism of all creation.  Again he represents the mythical struggle of the Scandinavian sagas-between primitive Adam and the serpent Hidhoegur, which symbolizes the watery enemy of the human race.  While a part of the figures left embedded in the rock, the statues disengage themselves slowly, until they become a harmonious living thing.  They are original in a line difficult to pass.-Menestrel, 13 May, Le Senne, France.










 

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