Robert Tait McKenzie (1867-1938)
Tait McKenzie spent his life pursuing his three great passions of sport, the arts and medicine. Whilst studying at McGill University in Montreal, he won numerous prizes for his athletic and sporting abilities as well as becoming a lecturer on anatomy at the university. Mckenzie later lectured on Artistic Anatomy at the Montreal Art Association, Harvard University and for the Olympic Lecture Course at the St Louis Exhibition. In 1904, he took up the position of Professor of Physical Education and Physiotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania.
McKenzie was a member of the American Federation of Arts and in 1904 he was awarded a silver medal at the Saint Louis Exposition. In 1912 he was commissioned to create a work for the fifth modern Olympic Games held in Sweden. The piece, entitled Joy of Effort, was incorporated into the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm. Mckenzie received a royal honour from the King of Sweden for his services to athletic art. By 1915 he had been promoted to Major in the RAMC and following the war he developed pioneering new plastic surgery techniques which were used to help disfigured World War veterans.
McKenzie exhibited at the Paris Salon as well as the Royal Academy, and examples of his work can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the National Gallery of Canada, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
Robert Tait McKenzie (1867-1938)
Henry Drummond
bronze
Size: 11. 3/4 in
Inscribed 'Roman Bronze Works NY'
William Henry Drummond (1854-1907) était un poète, médecin et auteur canadien d'origine irlandaise, célèbre pour ses poèmes en vers vernaculaires représentant la vie des habitants et voyageurs québécois. Arrivé au Canada en 1864, il a pratiqué la médecine à Montréal tout en immortalisant la culture rurale francophone.
DRUMMOND, William Henry. The Voyageur and Other Poems. With Illustrations by Frederick Simpson Coburn. N.Y. & L.: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1905.
Biographie et Résumé
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Immigration : Arrive au Canada (Montréal) avec sa famille vers 1864.
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Carrière : Télégraphiste, puis médecin diplômé de l'Université McGill (1884), pratiquant dans le comté de Brome et à Montréal.
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Œuvre poétique : Il devient célèbre pour ses poèmes narratifs écrits en anglais avec l'accent et la syntaxe des Canadiens français (parlé vernaculaire). Son œuvre la plus connue est The Habitant and Other French-Canadian Poems (1897).
Il est considéré comme un "poète national" de son époque pour avoir popularisé la figure du "habitant" québécois.
Robert Tait McKenzie
William Mann Irvine (1865-1923)
bronze
Size: 3 x 4 1/4 in
Inscribed 'Medallicart c.o.NY'
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Rôle principal : Fondateur et premier directeur emblématique de la Mercersburg Academy(Pennsylvanie).
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Accomplissement : En 35 ans (1893-1928), il a transformé un petit collège local en une école préparatoire de prestige national.
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Profil : Diplômé de Princeton, c'était un athlète d'élite et un proche des présidents Wilson et Coolidge.
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Héritage : On lui doit la construction de la célèbre Chapelle Irvine et l'instauration de nombreuses traditions scolaires encore vivantes aujourd'hui.
Robert Tait McKenzie (1867-1938)
Grant Mitchell "The Actor"
bronze
Size: 10. 3/4 in
Inscribed 'Roman Bronze Works NY'
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Profil : Acteur de caractère américain incontournable des années 1930 et 1940.
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Parcours atypique : Diplômé de Harvard, il a exercé comme avocat avant de tout plaquer pour le théâtre à 28 ans.
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Spécialité : Il excellait dans les rôles de "monsieur tout le monde", pères de famille ou notables un peu nerveux mais dignes.
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Films cultes :
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Les Raisins de la colère (1940)
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L'Homme qui vint dîner (1942)
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Arsenic et vieilles dentelles (1944)
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Anecdote : Il était le neveu par alliance du président américain Rutherford B. Hayes.
Sold / Vendu
Illustration - Kozar, Andrew J. « R. Tait McKenzie, sculptor of ahletes » 1975
Paire de bronze -1922
Titre: "Acrobat, Prone Arch Back and Acrobat, Supine curl, Legs Crossed (knife rests)
Flying Sphere
Signed 'R Tait McKenzie'
Dated 1920
Inscribed 'Roman Bronze Works NY'
Bronze with a rich brown patination and reddish brown highlights
Height including base: 21 3/4 inches (55.3 cm)
Flying Sphere depicts an athlete putting the shot. Mckenzie explained that ‘the long lone from the left hand to the right foot… carries the movement uninterrupted across the body in an upward curve of power and exhilaration.’ E. Norman Gardiner, author of Athletics of the Ancient World, argued that this work was Mckenzie’s finest representation of an athlete in action. ‘The composition is superb, the long delicate curve of the body and the short-reversed curve of the open hand beautifully suggesting the curved flight of the shot’. The work was so popular that the complete edition of bronzes was immediately sold when the model was first exhibited.
The Boy-Scout
Signed 'R Tait McKenzie'
Dated 1915
Inscribed 'Roman Bronze Works NY'
Height : 16 1/2 inches (42 cm)
probably cast 1924
Javelin Thrower
Signed R Tait McKenzie
Dated 1923
Inscribed ROMAN BRONZE WORKS N-Y No 6
Bronze with a rich brown patination and lighter brown highlights
Height (including base): 22" (56 cm)
Conceived and cast circa 1923
VENDU // SOLD
