Edward Francis McCartan (American, 1879 to 1947)
While studying in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, McCartan was greatly influenced by Jean-Antoine Houdon’s classicism, a style reflected in the ornamental figurative bronzes he created. When McCartan returned to New York, he rented a studio from fellow sculptor Malvina Hoffman and taught at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design. He was awarded the Helen Foster Barnett Prize from the National Academy of Design in New York, the George D. Widener gold Medal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and the Gold Medal of Honor from the Allied Artists of America. He won the commission for the memorial to poet Eugene Field in Chicago, for which he was awarded the Architectural League of New York’s Medal of Honor. A member of the Art Commission of the City of New York, McCartan is known for his large heroic sculptures of Industry and Transportation for the clock above the Helmsley Building, as well as for designing Speed, the hood ornament for the Packard Car Company.
Information courtesy of Rago Arts, May 2007.