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         STHE CRAFTSMANowl
 No    GUSTAV STICKLEY, EDITOR. AND PUBLISHER
             VOLUME X1   DECEMBER, 1906  NUMBER 3
HUMAN STRENGTH AND PURITY SYM-
BOLIZED IN THE ART OF STEPHAN SINDING:
BY JOHN SPARGO
LTHOUGH the beauty and significance of his work
have long been recognized throughout Europe, Step-
han Sinding, the Norwegian sculptor, is practically
unknown in America. There are, I believe, no im-
portant examples of his work in this country and his
name is hardly known among us. Yet. aq these illiis-
trations attest, he is an artist of great genius, worthy to rank with
Rodin, Meunier, Hildebrand, and other leaders in the world-circling
Renaissance of plastic art, with whose names and achievements
American students are more or less familiar.
   Stephan Sinding was born on the 4th day of August, 1846, at
Drontheim, Norway, where his father held an important government
position. Whatever artistic passion may have manifested itself dur-
ing his boyhood seems to have been thoroughly repressed. He was
educated for the Bar, and it was not until after his graduation from
the law school in Christiania, in 1870, that he began the study of art.
Abandoning Law in favor of Art, Sinding went, in his twenty-fifth
year, to Berlin, where he received his first lessons in the studio of Al-
bert Wolf.
   During the years spent in Berlin Sinding saw much of the best
sculpture of modern Germany and Belgium, but did not receive from
it much inspiration. Neither country seemed to have any special
message for him, and his work is singularly free from visible traces
of their influence. The great awakening of his genius, which stamped
its character indelibly, came from France. After leaving Berlin he
lived for a while in Paris, where he felt the inspiration of the new
spirit of which Rodin is the great exemplar. Most of his work bears
unmistakable signs of Rodin's influence, yet having the distinction
of marked individuality.
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