Gutzon Borglum

John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum ( March 25, 1867 in St. Charles, Idaho, † March 6, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois ) was an American sculptor.

Life

Borglum was the son of a Danish immigrant who worked mainly as a wood carver. His brother was the painter Solon Hannibal Borglum.

His artistic training Borglum learned at the Academy of Arts in San Francisco. With 23 years Borglum went in 1890 to the Académie Julian in Paris. There he was inspired, among others, by Auguste Rodin. After a stay in London Borglum returned again in 1893 to the USA.

From 1901 he lived and worked in New York. At the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, he was awarded a gold medal for his artistic work.

His main work is the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, which consists of four monumental portraits of U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Borglum began in 1927 with this work after his death in 1941, his son Lincoln Borglum continued the work. Even before the First World War, Borglum involved in a similar project at Stone Mountain in Georgia.

John Gutzon Borglum de la Mothe died on March 6, 1941 at the age of 73 in Chicago, Illinois.