Alexander Stirling Calder (1870 – 1945)
Alexander Stirling Calder, born January 11 1870 in Philadelphia, was an American sculptor. Calder was the son of sculptor Alexander Milne Calder and the father of sculptor Alexander Calder. Calder first worked as a sculptor assisting his father in producing the extensive sculpture program on the Philadelphia City Hall and in 1886 is reported to have modeled the arm of one of the figures.
In 1885 at age 16 he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under the renowned Thomas Eakins. In 1890 Calder moved to Paris where he studied at the Academie Julian under Henri Michel Chapu and then was accepted in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he entered the atelier of Alexandre Falguia¨re. In 1902 he returned to Philadelphia and began his career as a sculptor in earnest. Throughout out his career Calder was frequently a teacher, variously teaching sculpture or anatomy at the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts, the School of Industrial Art, in Phladelphia, the National Academy of Design in NYC and the Students Art League, also in NYC.
In 1912 Calder, along with Karl Bitter was named head of the sculpture program for the Pacific-Panama International Exposition. Calder obtained a studio in NYC and there employed the services of model Audrey Munson who posed for Calder and a host of other artists.
Information courtesy of thefreedictionary.com September 2006