# 887 - 1940 Famous Americans: 5c Daniel Chester French
1940 5¢ Daniel Chester French
Famous Americans Series – Artists
First City: Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Quantity Issued: 21,720,580
Printed by: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method: Rotary Press
Perforation: 10 ½ x 11
Color: Ultramarine
Birth Of Daniel Chester French
French was the son Henry Flagg French, a lawyer, judge, and Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary. Though he showed a talent for drawing as a child, French didn’t discover sculpture until his late teens.
After the family moved to Concord, Massachusetts, in 1867, French met artist Abigail May Alcott (sister of author Louisa May Alcott and the inspiration for Amy in Little Women). Having studied fine arts in Boston, Alcott gave French an introduction to working with clay and encouraged him to pursue a career. He went on to study with the same teachers she had – William Rimmer (anatomy) and William Morris Hunt (drawing). French then spent a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and several years in Florence, Italy, under the instruction of Thomas Ball.
In 1914, French was hired for perhaps one of his most famous sculptures, the seated Abraham Lincoln that sits in Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. He made three plaster casts (which are on display at his Chesterwood Studio in Massachusetts) before the final sculpture, which took a year to make, could be completed.
1940 5¢ Daniel Chester French
Famous Americans Series – Artists
First City: Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Quantity Issued: 21,720,580
Printed by: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method: Rotary Press
Perforation: 10 ½ x 11
Color: Ultramarine
Birth Of Daniel Chester French
French was the son Henry Flagg French, a lawyer, judge, and Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary. Though he showed a talent for drawing as a child, French didn’t discover sculpture until his late teens.
After the family moved to Concord, Massachusetts, in 1867, French met artist Abigail May Alcott (sister of author Louisa May Alcott and the inspiration for Amy in Little Women). Having studied fine arts in Boston, Alcott gave French an introduction to working with clay and encouraged him to pursue a career. He went on to study with the same teachers she had – William Rimmer (anatomy) and William Morris Hunt (drawing). French then spent a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and several years in Florence, Italy, under the instruction of Thomas Ball.
In 1914, French was hired for perhaps one of his most famous sculptures, the seated Abraham Lincoln that sits in Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. He made three plaster casts (which are on display at his Chesterwood Studio in Massachusetts) before the final sculpture, which took a year to make, could be completed.