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for John Flanagan
John Flanagan
American
In New York City, he studied at Cooper Union* and the Art Students League*, and in 1890, he went to Paris where he enrolled in the ateliers* of Leon Bonnat and Alexandre Falguiere at the Ecole des Beaux Arts*. In Paris, he also worked with Frederick MacMonnies on the decorative parts of the Columbian Fountain for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. He also sculpted Eagles for the National Pavilion, Exposition Universelle* in Paris, 1900.
Flanagan received special recognitions in France including various student medals at the Ecole-des-Beaux-Arts and the Academy Colarossi.* In 1921, he was named a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur for the Verdun Medal he designed for the United States to give to France.
In 1902, he returned to New York City where he focused much of his career on medallic art. He did many commissions for the Medallic Art Company* including the American Friends of Lafayette Medal (1943), Augustus Saint-Gaudens Plaquette (1937), Edward Guthrie Kennedy Medal (1912), Mark Twain Centennial Plaquette (1935), School Art League of New York City Merit Award Medal (1915), and Frederic William MacMonnies Plaquette (1929). For the United States Mint, he created the Panama-Pacific International Exposition Medal (1915), and in 1931 as authorized by Congress, did the design of the twenty-five cent piece with the image of George Washington. In 1937, he completed an official seal for the National Academy of Design.
From 1908, Flanagan began exhibiting at the National Academy, typically showing frames of medals. In 1944, he began four seasons of teaching at the Academy School, and from 1948 to 1949, taught for another year.
It is said that "his most famous monumental work is the huge clock with the figures Reader and Writer" (Dearinger, 196) installed in the main reading room of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.
He also did life-size statuary such as physicist, Joseph Henry, of Albany, and relief portraits of prominent persons including fellow artists Paul Bartlett, Daniel French, Frederick MacMonnies and Julian Weir.
Considering the excellence of his career, particularly the design of coinage, "it was a sad irony that, according to his obituaries, Flanagan died penniless at New York City Hospital on Welfare Island." (Dearinger, 196).
Person TypeIndividual
French, 1824 - 1898
