Eli Harvey

Eli Harvey (September 23, 1860 – February 10, 1957) was an American sculptor, painter and animalier.

Biography


Harvey was born in Ogden, Ohio, a Quaker community in Clinton County, to William P. and Nancy M. Harvey. He attended art school in the Art Academy of Cincinnati where he studied painting with Thomas Satterwhite Noble and sculpture with Louis Rebisso. In 1889 he moved to Paris where he continued his studies, with Lefebvre, Constant, Doucet and finally Frémiet. In 1897 he began exhibiting sculptures of animals at Paris salons and continued doing so until returning to the United States in 1900, by which time he was "firmly committed to animal sculpture."

His work was exhibited at both the Pan-American Exposition (Buffalo, New York, 1900) and at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (Saint Louis, Missouri, 1904) and a decade later at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco, California, 1915). Harvey also produced architectural sculpture for the lion house at the New York Zoological Park and two lions for the Eaton family mausoleum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Harvey's most popular work was a life-sized elk produced for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and used at their buildings and in cemeteries around the United States.

He died in Alhambra, California on February 10, 1957.

His home is included on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Clinton County, Ohio.

Elk, or Elk at Rest
"The Order of Elks commissioned him to create a statue of the elk. and so pleased were they with the result that they ordered numerous replicas to be made." These include the following:

Work
Harvey's works can be found in :
 * Clinton County History Center, Wilmington, Ohio
 * Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum
 * Los Angeles County Museum of Art
 * Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida
 * R. W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, Louisiana
 * Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
 * Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
 * Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
 * Eaton Mausoleum, Toronto, Canada
 * Bronx Zoo, Bronx, New York
 * Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
 * St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
 * Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles
 * Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Alexandria, Virginia
 * Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, District of Columbia
 * Chester County History Center, West Chester, Pennsylvania
 * Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania
 * Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Kirkwood, New York
 * National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
 * Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
 * Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming
 * Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
 * Bridgemarket, New York City