Eli Harvey (September 23, 1860 – February 10, 1957) was an American sculptor, painter and animalier.
Biography
Harvey was born in Ogden, Ohio, a Quaker community in Clinton County, to William P. and Nancy M. Harvey.Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, SC, 1968 p. 163 He attended art school in the Art Academy of Cincinnati where he studied painting with Thomas Satterwhite Noble and sculpture with Louis Rebisso. In 1889 he moved to Paris where he continued his studies, with Lefebvre, Constant, Doucet and finally Frémiet. In 1897 he began exhibiting sculptures of animals at Paris salons and continued doing so until returning to the United States in 1900, by which time he was "firmly committed to animal sculpture."Craven, Wayne, Sculpture in America, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, 1968 pp. 537–538
His work was exhibited at both the Pan-American Exposition (Buffalo, New York, 1900) and at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (Saint Louis, Missouri, 1904) and a decade later at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco, California, 1915). Harvey also produced architectural sculpture for the lion house at the New York Zoological Park and two lions for the Eaton family mausoleum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Harvey's most popular work was a life-sized elk produced for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and used at their buildings and in cemeteries around the United States.
He died in Alhambra, California on February 10, 1957.
His home is included on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Clinton County, Ohio.
Elk, or Elk at Rest "The Order of Elks commissioned him to create a statue of the elk. and so pleased were they with the result that they ordered numerous replicas to be made."Craven, Wayne, Sculpture in America, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, 1968 p. 540 These include the following:
Elks statues by Eli Harvey Year Location Image 1904 Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana 1904Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, Colorado 1905 North Burial Ground, Providence, Rhode Island 1907Clinton County Historical Society, 149 East Locust Street, Wilmington, Ohio 1907318 Prince Street, over entrance, Alexandria, Virginia1909Riverside Cemetery, Waterbury, Connecticut Between 1904 &1915Elks Opera House, Prescott, Arizona1917Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota1923Mohawk Trail, Florida, Massachusetts 1924B.P.O. E., Route 11 South, Kirkwood, New York 1925Toledo Memorial Park, Sylvania, Ohio1925Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse, New York1936Woodlawn National Cemetery, Elmira, New York1937Elks National Home, Bedford, VirginiaHighland Lawn Cemetery, Terre Haute, IndianaGreenlawn Cemetery Newport News, VirginiaKensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New YorkRoselawn Cametery, Pueblo, Colorado
Work
Harvey's works can be found in : The Harmon Museum, Lebanon, Ohio. Clinton County History Center, Wilmington, Ohio Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum Los Angeles County Museum of Art Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida R. W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, Louisiana Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City Eaton Mausoleum, Toronto, Canada Bronx Zoo, Bronx, New York Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Alexandria, Virginia Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, District of Columbia Chester County History Center, West Chester, Pennsylvania Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Kirkwood, New York National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey Bridgemarket, New York City
References