The Spirit of Life

1914 sculpture by Daniel Chester French

The Spirit of Life

Artist| Daniel Chester French
Year| 1914
Type| Bronze
Location| Saratoga Springs, NY (smaller castings elsewhere)
Coordinates| 43°4′44.5″N 73°47′7.2″W﻿ / ﻿43.079028°N 73.785333°W﻿ / 43.079028; -73.785333

The Spirit of Life is a 1914 sculpture in Saratoga Springs, New York, by the American sculptor Daniel Chester French.

## Overview

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The Spirit of Life began as a commission for a memorial to the famous Wall Street financier Spencer Trask (1844–1909). Trask was a summer resident in Saratoga Springs and a founder of the committee which was charged with renewing the city's reputation as a health resort. The commission for the monument came from George Foster Peabody who was a friend of Trask's. Henry Bacon, who collaborated with French on the Lincoln Memorial, designed the setting for French's statue.[1]

The statue stands in the heart of Congress Park on a shallow niche of white marble with a balustraded terrace above and an oblong lagoon, set in marble and surrounded with verdant shrubbery, green lawns and a wealth of flowers below. The statue is a figure of a winged woman, hands moving high above her head (the model has been said to be Audrey Munson but recent Daniel Chester French scholarship shows that Hettie Anderson posed).[2][3] The figure represents Hygieia, the giver of health, who usually appeared in Greek and Roman art accompanying her father, Asklepios, the god of medicine. She is often shown offering nourishment to a serpent entwined on the staff which Asklepios carries. In French's conception, Hygieia holds aloft a shallow bowl and in the other hand clasps a pine bough, a reference to the towering pines on the grounds of the Trasks' estate. The goddess is poised lightly on a rock and a stream of water pours from its cleft. The pedestal is a sculptured reproduction of the tufaceous deposits seen about the orifice of many of Saratoga's famous springs.[4] The inscription on the statue reads, "To do good and serve my fellow man."[5]

The Spirit of Life is one of French's finest "active" statues. The flow of the angel's robe and the position of her right foot gives a great deal of motion. Several smaller castings of the statue were made and authorized by French; six were made between 1923 and 1931.

It is considered a contributing object to the National Historic Landmark District that includes the park and Canfield Casino.

## See also

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* Public sculptures by Daniel Chester French

## References

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1. ^ Daniel Chester French: The Spirit of Life
2. ^ Kahn, Eve (August 12, 2021). "Overlooked No More: Hettie Anderson, Sculptors' Model Who Evaded Fame". New York Times.
3. ^ Kahn, Eve (October 29, 2021). "The Woman Who Was Victory". Magazine Antiques.
4. ^ "Saratoga's Tribute to Spencer Trask; Unveiling of "The Spirit of Life," Completing the Memorial to Him". The New York Times. June 27, 1915.
5. ^ "The Spirit of Life". Archived from the original on April 11, 2003. Retrieved October 8, 2007.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Spirit of Life.

* Audrey Munson, the model for The Spirit of Life

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Daniel Chester French

Sculptures
(public)|

* The Minute Man (1874)
* John Harvard (1884)
* Memory (1886–1887)
* Thomas Gallaudet Memorial (1889)
* Lewis Cass (1889)
* Death and the Sculptor (1889)
* Thomas Starr King (1892)
* John Boyle O'Reilly Memorial (1896)
* T. A. Chapman Memorial (1896–1897)
* Richard Morris Hunt Memorial (1898)
* Rufus Choate (1898)
* Ulysses S. Grant (1899)
* George H. Perkins (1902)
* Joseph Hooker (1903)
* Alma Mater (1903–1904)
* Colonel James Anderson Monument (1904)
* William Francis Bartlett (1904)
* Four Continents (1905–1907)
* Charles Devens (1906)
* Progress of the State (1906)
* James Oglethorpe Monument (1907–1910)
* George Frisbie Hoar (1908)
* Russell Alger Memorial Fountain (1913–1921)
* Samuel Spencer (1910)
* Statue of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln, Nebraska; 1912)
* Butt–Millet Memorial Fountain (1913)
* Wisconsin (1913–1914)
* The Spirit of Life (1914)
* Wendell Phillips (1914)
* Lafayette Memorial (1917)
* The Republic (1918; replica of 1893 statue)
* Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial (1918)
* Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln Memorial; 1920)
* Dupont Circle Fountain (1921)
* Marquis de Lafayette (1921)
* Alfred Tredway White Memorial (1923)
* Victory statue, First Division Monument (1924)
* George Robert White Memorial (1924)
* Washington Irving Memorial (1925–1926)
* Westinghouse Memorial (1926–1930)
* William Henry Seward Memorial (1930)
* Beneficence (1930)
* Equestrian statue of George Washington

Medals|

* Pulitzer Prize (1917)

Museums|

* Chesterwood

Related|

* Henry Flagg French (father)
* William M.R. French (brother)
* William M. Richardson (grandfather)
* Audrey Munson (model)
* Berkshire Playhouse
* National Sculpture Society
* Minute Man National Historical Park
* Lexington–Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar
* Daniel Chester French: American Sculptor (2022 documentary)

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