The Spirit of the Lotus FlowerSource: The Lotus Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 4 (Jan., 1913), p. 156Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20543411 .

Accessed: 14/05/2014 00:21

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.148 on Wed, 14 May 2014 00:21:35 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE SPIRIT OF THE LOTUS FLOWER

QO NE of the leading Paris papers, in its correspondence from New

York, speaks of Augustus Lukeman's recently completed sculpture, "The Spirit of the Lotus Flower," as "a re markable figure, to be executed in bronze, as a memorial to Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., in San Diego, Califor nia. The subject is symbolized by an ideal draped female figure seated, with large wings outspread, and most im pressive in character."

It happens to have been the name of this magazine which suggested to

Mr. Lukeman, who studied with. Dan iel C. French and has executed many important works of sculpture, to in troduce the lotus in his design and to

model a winged figure that in pose, expression and general aspect would symbolize the spirit of the lotus flower as interpreted by the Ancient Egyp tians. Having decided upon this and communicated his intention to a mem ber of the Grant family, this member quoted to him some lines from a poem. Neither the author's name nor the title of the poem could be recalled. I have identified it as "The Lotus of the Nile," the beautiful poem printed at the beginning of this number with the permission of the author, Arthur

Wentworth Eaton, of Boston. It gives the title to a book of poems by him and published by Thomas Whit taker. With the Egyptians the lotus was

a symbol of eternity, and interpretive of the passive spirit in Nature that goes on forever. It designates a great quiet-not a weird silence, but the vast and solemn quietude of the Never-ending.

The heroic figure of "The Spirit of the Lotus," impressive in its simplic ity of drapery and dignity of pose, is seen against a background formed in part by its enormous wings that rise over the head, while the drooped pinions extend downward on each side. The right hand, resting on the knee, holds a lotus flower with one bud opened and two closed. Against the left rests the cheek. The pose is one of passive remembrance. The eyes peer forth as if into a great space. The mind seems given over to the distant contemplation of memory. All is silence.

Grant was a silent man; and in other ways, but unobtrusively, phases of character and facial characteristics of the Grant family are reproduced in this memorial. A grand-daughter of the great commander gave the sculp tor sittings and an effort has been

made with success to secure what might be called a composite Grant likeness. The sculpture, of course, is not erected to the famous General. Nevertheless his personality was so strong and his fame so great that it

was thought proper to embody a sug gestion of him in the memorial.

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.148 on Wed, 14 May 2014 00:21:35 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

SPIRIT CF THE LOTUS FLOWER

By Augustus Lukeman

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.148 on Wed, 14 May 2014 00:21:35 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions