Biografie von Larkin Goldsmith MEAD (1835-1910)

Birth place: Chesterfield, NH

Death place: Florence, Italy

Addresses: Florence, Italy

Profession: Sculptor

Studied: Henry Kirke Brown, 1853-55

Exhibited: World's Columbian Expo, Chicago, 1893.

Work: "Ceres," State House, Montpelier, VT; Lincoln Mem., Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, IL; U.S. Capitol, Wash., DC ("Ethan Allen"); All Souls Church, Brattleboro, VT; Soldier's Mon., St. Johnsbury, VT; Minn. Court House; New Hampshire Hist. Soc.; Calif. State House, Sacramento; CGA.

Comments: Grew up in Brattleboro (VT). Traveled to NYC in 1853 and went to work in the studio of Henry Kirke Brown for two years. After returning to Vermont, he drew notice in 1856 for making a large angel out of snow (later produced in marble as "The Recording Angel," All Souls Church), soon after receiving his first important commission, a large statue of Ceres (representing Vermont) for the state of Vermont. At the beginning of the Civil War Mead worked briefly as an artist-correspondent for Harper's Weekly(1861), before leaving for Italy in 1862. Settling in Florence, Mead met other American sculptors, including Hiram Powers, Thomas Ball, and Joel Tanner Hart, and over the next several years produced sculptural subjects drawn from ancient mythology and the Civil War. He brought a number of these works with him when he returned briefly to the U.S. in 1865, also bringing a model for a memorial to Abraham Lincoln which won him the prestigious commission to design the Lincoln Memorial at Springfield (IL). While Italy would remain his home for most of his career, Mead made many trips back to the U.S. and by the 1880s was one of America's most well-known sculptors living abroad. His Florentine studio drew wealthy American and English travelers. In the early 1890s Mead received the commission for the sculptural decorations of the Agricultural Building at the Columbian Exposition, for which his younger brother, William Rutherford Mead (of McKim, Mead & White) was one of the architects.

Sources: G&W; WW10; DAB; Sartain, Reminiscences, 237-40; CAB; Fairman, Art and Artists of the Capitol; Thieme-Becker; Craven, Sculpture in America, 321-325; Baigell, Dictionary.