Lorado Taft

Lorado Zadoc Taft ( born April 29, 1860 in Elmwood, † October 30, 1936 in Chicago) was a renowned American sculptor and writer of the early 20th century.

Life

Lorado Zadoc Taft was the eldest son of four children of Carlos Taft and his wife Mary Lucy Foster. His father was a professor of geology and zoology and taught at several high schools. He himself joined in 1880 to study at the University of Illinois with honors (Bachelor) as a professor of geology from. In his youth he was fascinated by a Belgian sculptor in Champaign, Illinois, where his father had a job. In the late 1880s went to France Taft and studied at the École nationale supérieure des beaux -arts de Paris sculpture. After his return to the United States to him a teaching position at the Art Institute of Chicago was offered, a position he held between 1893 to 1900 and again from 1909 to 1929 as a lecturer in art history. In addition to his teaching activities, he wrote several books about art history through the ages.

Lorado Taft married in 1890 Carrie Scales, who died after two years of marriage to tuberculosis. Four years later he went a second marriage with Ada Bartlett, who bore him three daughters. He died on October 30, 1936 in Chicago and was buried there. Taft is still regarded as the most important graduate of the University of Illinois and his works can still be admired in different cities of the United States.