Clark Mills (sculptor)
Clark Mills (September 1, 1815 – January 12, 1883) was an American sculptor, best known for four versions of an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, located in Washington, D.C., with replicas in Nashville, Tennessee, Jacksonville, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Early years Mills was born on September 1, 1815, near Syracuse, in Onondaga County, New York. When his father passed away he was sent to his uncle's but found that he was too harsh so he ran away. He had very little formal education. Before he turned 22, he had worked as a "teamster, lumberjack, farmhand, carpenter, and millwright." When he was quite young Mills was apprenticed to a millwright in New York. When he was twenty years old, in 1835, he overwintered in New Orleans. In 1837, he moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where he began to work as an ornamental plasterer. In the 1840s, he developed a faster, easier method of making plaster life-masks, which he then used to make portrait busts. E. Wayne Craven, author of the 1968 book Sculpture in America, wrote that "What he learned he acquired from the life-mask itself, and this established his style as one strongly dependent upon naturalism." His first stone carving was an 1845 bust of John C. Calhoun, who in 1845, was Charleston's "most distinguished citizen". The bust is in the Charleston's City Hall Museum; a bronze version was formerly in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Clark Mills studio and foundries Clark Mills had a number of studios and foundries. From 1837 to 1848, Mills had his first studio on Broad Street, Charleston, South Carolina, which was assigned the National Historic Landmark designation on December 21, 1965, by the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation (OAHP). In 1849, in order to produce the Jackson equestrian statue, Mills built a temporary furnace and studio on the Ellipse at 15th and Pennsylvania Avenue, near LaFayette Square.There is a statue of General Sherman there currently, south of the Treasury Building. His equestrian statue of George Washington was also cast at this site. Mills purchased a parcel on the border of Maryland and the District of Columbia where is constructed his mansion and a large octagon-shaped studio and foundry on Bladensburg Road. It was at the Bladensburg foundry that the 1863 bronze Statue of Freedom was cast. Major works Equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson One of Mills' most well-known sculptures is the equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, located in President's Park, also known as Lafayette Square, which is situated on the north portico side of the White House. Mills presented a submission to a competition for the contract to produce the statue. Mills' sculpture depicted Major Jackson on a rearing horse, raising his hat to the troops he was reviewing at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. He won the competition to create the statue in 1848 and moved from Charleston to Washington, bringing with him the enslaved master craftsman, Philip Reid (c. 1820 – February 6,