not just because the contract he signed with henry bacon the designer stipulated that bacon could choose the sculptor. which he did? and not because he'd already done a beautiful lincoln for lincoln, nebraska for the state capitol, which he also did. i think he got the job because he was the greatest living american sculptor and also because nobody dared to say he shouldn't well guts and borglam actually did say that he wanted the commission, but he had to settle for mount rushmore, which was not a bad alternative. french set to work in 1915 and from a mound of inert clay. no preparatory drawings that we've ever discovered. working at his beautiful studio in stockbridge, massachusetts somehow crafted a fully formed little 13 inch model. this is the part that as much as i a non-artist can write about an artist that i don't fathom. there's the clay and a week later. there's the lincoln memorial in miniature. see the great lincoln artists wendy allen here nodding. she may know how it's done, but i don't know how it's done. it's called create creative genius. it's hands resting a chair of st

he championed henry bacon as an architect, his frequent collaborator. is chairman of the commissioner of fine arts, and then bacon appointed him the sculptor. it was a win-win for creativity. he insisted, as i said, that the statue be just the right size to fill the atrium, yet respectful of the magnificent space. he insisted it be marble, not bronze, which is one of the original alternatives, and many prefer. consider the harmony that that choice has produced. marble and granite. he insisted that it not be standing, which some people want, but a seed lincoln, because he wanted lincoln's face to be fully visible from the reflective wall to the bottom stop to the platform, all the way to the stop. a standing lincoln might have denied visitors that transcendent experience. he realized that the open-door policy we all cherish, because it lets us visit anytime, day or night. wound up, casino harsh glare on his masterpiece. he saw the lighting first time when he came back from italy. so he stalled, he first investigated, then installed, the first electric lig