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for John J. Boyle
American, 1851/2 - 1917
Boyle was taken as an infant to the Philadephia area. After his father's death in 1857, he grew up in an uncle's home; several years later he commenced an apprenticeship with a stonecutter. Boyle attended drawing lessons at the Franklin Institute, and as of 1872 he also sought instruction at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins and Joseph Alexis Bailly. His artistic education was completed by three years of study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris beginning in 1877.
While in Europe, Boyle executed several portrait busts and small projects, but his first major commission came in 1880, after he had resettled in Philadelphia. Engaged to provide a bronze group for Chicago's Lincoln Park, he spent two months with the Sioux Tribe in the Dakota Territory to research his sculpture, An Indian Family. His later projects included the sculptural decoration for the Transportation Building at the World's Columbian Exposition (1893) and figures of Francis Bacon and Plato for the Library of Congress (1895). Boyle married Elizabeth Carroll in 1882. Four years later he spent an extended period of time in Europe.
The inscription on Smedley's portrait of Boyle indicates that the men were friends. Both students of Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, they may have met in Philadelphia as early as 1877 prior to Boyle's departure for Europe.
While in Europe, Boyle executed several portrait busts and small projects, but his first major commission came in 1880, after he had resettled in Philadelphia. Engaged to provide a bronze group for Chicago's Lincoln Park, he spent two months with the Sioux Tribe in the Dakota Territory to research his sculpture, An Indian Family. His later projects included the sculptural decoration for the Transportation Building at the World's Columbian Exposition (1893) and figures of Francis Bacon and Plato for the Library of Congress (1895). Boyle married Elizabeth Carroll in 1882. Four years later he spent an extended period of time in Europe.
The inscription on Smedley's portrait of Boyle indicates that the men were friends. Both students of Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, they may have met in Philadelphia as early as 1877 prior to Boyle's departure for Europe.
