Clark Mills (1815-1883)
Clark Mills’ life story was the personification of the American dream. Born in upstate New York Onandaga County, he left home at the age of thirteen and worked at assorted jobs in cities as distant and disparate as Syracuse and New Orleans. Around 1831 to 1832, he settled in Charleston, South Carolina. By 1835, he was known in that affluent antebellum city as an ornamental plasterer of skill. Mills had also taught himself to model in clay, which led to work as a creator of life masks, a talent which he soon adapted to portrait busts in marble and plaster. His Charleston patrons sent him to view the works of other sculptors in Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia, two municipalities which had shown a strong interest in public sculpture.
In 1848, Mills won a commission from the Jackson Monument Committee for a full-scale equestrian figure of Andrew Jackson to be placed in Lafayette Square, opposite the White House. This figure was unveiled in 1853 to great acclaim and made Mills the logical candidate for the proposed New Orleans monument of Jackson. In 1849, Mills had taken up residence in Washington and became the first American sculptor of prominence not to be trained in Rome. He also was the first sculptor of large-scale equestrian sculpture in this country. The success of the Washington monument of Jackson provided a definite edge to Mills’ candidacy for a New Orleans sculpture.
However, it is interesting to note that another competitor for the New Orleans project was local sculptor and painter Achille Perelli (1822-1891), a near contemporary of Mills. The Perelli design, although ultimately rejected, was the runner-up to the Mills composition. The monumental New Orleans equestrian figure was so popular that Mills sold design rights to the eminent Philadelphia firm of Cornelius and Baker (in partnership, 1851-1861), which is most often remembered today for its superbly cast lamps, girandoles and chandeliers in bronze, brass and spelter. Mills died in Washington DC in 1883.
Information courtesy of New Orleans Auction Galleries Inc.