Bust of Gutzon Borglum at Mount Rushmore

(John) Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 — March 6, 1941) was an American artist and sculptor famous for creating the monumental presidents' heads at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, as well as dozens of other impressive public works of art.

Gutzon Borglum was born in St. Charles, Idaho. There is a monument in his honor near the center of town in front of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At the age of seven, he moved to Nebraska, and later he graduated from Creighton Preparatory School. He was trained in Paris at the Academie Julian, where he came to know Auguste Rodin and was influenced by Rodin's dynamic impressionistic light-catching surfaces. Back in the U.S. in New York City he sculpted about a hundred saints and apostles for the new Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in 1901, got a sculpture accepted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art — the first sculpture by a living American the museum had ever purchased — and made his presence further felt with some well-placed portraits, he also won the Logan Medal of the arts.

Photo 713, Sept 2007

Bust of Gutzon Borglum detail

Photo 713d, Sept 2007