Log of a Masterpiece: Barnard's "The Struggle of the Two Natures of Man"

Throughout ten years of professional studies in Paris George Grey Barnard doggedly refused, resisting the pressures of parents and friends, to exhibit any of his work (except in the Beaux Arts Concours) or to have it publicized either abroad or at home. "Any day," he explained to his mother, midpoint in that period, "I can have half a column in three different Paris papers-but I won't." Then in May, 1894, at the Salon of the Champs de Mars, the thirty year old American sculptor made his public debut; and with it-the cliché is apt enough-he scored a resounding triumph. Members of the salon jury applauded as they accepted all of his six submitted works. Critics and notables of the art world and of society, seeing his entries given "the best place in the Salon," applauded also; Rodin himself was greatly impressed. Friends wired his wealthy patron, Alfred Corning Clark: "George great success most discussed man in Paris." Almost overnight the sculptor became a celebrity (long to remain one), and promptly was admitted to associate membership in the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts: it was reported that only Rodin's words of caution had stemmed a move toward higher recognition.