Lawson Monument
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''The Crusader'', also known as the Victor Lawson Monument, is a memorial marking the grave of
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
newspaper publisher Victor Lawson. It is in Chicago's historic Graceland Cemetery and was designed by American sculptor
Lorado Taft Lorado Zadok Taft (April 29, 1860 – October 30, 1936) was an American sculptor, writer and educator. Part of the American Renaissance movement, his monumental pieces include, ''Fountain of Time'', ''Spirit of the Great Lakes'', and ''The ...
in 1931.


History

''The Crusader'' was created in 1931 by
Lorado Taft Lorado Zadok Taft (April 29, 1860 – October 30, 1936) was an American sculptor, writer and educator. Part of the American Renaissance movement, his monumental pieces include, ''Fountain of Time'', ''Spirit of the Great Lakes'', and ''The ...
. In Chicago's historic Graceland Cemetery, it is a monument intended to memorialize Victor F. Lawson (1850–1925), the publisher of the '' Chicago Daily News''. The ''Chicago Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy and William Dougherty in 1875. In July 1876, Lawson invested money into the publication, which was struggling, and became its business manager. By the 1890s, the paper had reached a circulation of 200,000 people. Lawson remained involved with the paper until 1925. ''The Crusader'' was commissioned by Victor Lawson's brother, Iver Lawson.Dennis, Charles Henry. ''Victor Lawson: His Time and His Work'',
Google Books link
, University of Chicago Press, 1935, p. 462.


Design

''The Crusader'' is a medieval knight, and is used to symbolize the character of Victor Lawson.Kiefer, et al., p. 71. Standing more than thirteen feet tall, it was carved out of a solid block of dark granite supplied by the Henry C. Smalley Granite Company of Quincy, Massachusetts. The granite was then highly polished."Unique statue as memorial to Victor Lawson". ''Chicago Daily Tribune''. July 24, 1931. p. 21. The knight, with a large sword and shield, was an image that Taft had contemplated for years; he used it in numerous works besides ''The Crusader''.Prince, Sue Ann. ''The Old Guard and the Avant-Garde: Modernism in Chicago, 1910-1940'',
Google Books link
,
University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...
, 1990, p. 52, ().
The original model of ''The Crusader'' was done in clay. Unlike Taft's earlier work, ''The Crusader'' emphasizes its "sheer mass", helped by the lack of realistic details in the sculpture. The monument does not bear Lawson's name, but does have an inscription which reads, "Above all things truth beareth away the victory", a quote from
1 Esdras 1 Esdras (), also Esdras A, Greek Esdras, Greek Ezra, or 3 Esdras, is the ancient Greek Septuagint version of the biblical Book of Ezra in use within the early church and among many modern Christians with varying degrees of canonicity. 1 Esdra ...
3:12.Merchants and Inventors
, '' Graceland Cemetery'', official site, accessed October 9, 2011.
Stylistically, the Lawson Monument falls within
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
.Graceland Cemetery, Lawson, Victor, Monument
, Property Information Report, HAARGIS Database, '' Illinois Historic Preservation Agency'', accessed October 8, 2011.
''The Crusader'' is described as "an excellent example of Taft's late style in which he blended literal realism and
allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...
".Kiefer, et al., p. 149.


See also

*'' Eternal Silence'' * List of public art in Chicago


References

*Kiefer, Charles D., Achilles, Rolf, and Vogel, Neil A.
Graceland Cemetery
(
pdf Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...
), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, HAARGIS Database, '' Illinois Historic Preservation Agency'', June 18, 2000, accessed October 8, 2011.


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crusader, The 1931 establishments in Illinois 1931 sculptures Graceland Cemetery Granite sculptures in Illinois Historic district contributing properties in Illinois Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Chicago Outdoor sculptures in Chicago Sculptures by Lorado Taft Statues in Chicago