Profile of Chester Beach (1881 - 1956)

Chester Beach was known as "one of the few American sculptors to adopt Rodin's vibrating surfaces throughout his work." He created a powerful male figure for the American Telephone and Telegraph building in New York and the Fountain of the Waters at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  This depiction of a nude youth holding a squirrel remained in Chester Beach's studio long after his death in 1956. Cast in plaster, this piece was created in preparation for the final sculpture in marble that was commissioned by Brookgreen Gardens, one of the first eight pieces purchased by Brookgreen when it opened in 1932. Established by sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington with the considerable wealth of her husband, Brookgreen became the largest sculpture garden of figural pieces in America, and purchased many important sculptures from struggling artists in the heart of the Depression.

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