2017 Day Trip: Oregon, Illinois / The Seven Muses

The Seven Muses – by Students of Lorado Taft.
The sculpture is also known as the Funeral Procession.

Year: 1902

Location: Eagle’s Nest Art Colony.
The Eagle’s Nest Art Colony is now Lorado Taft Field Campus, a part of the Northern Illinois University [NIU].

The sculpture was designed and executed by students of Lorado Taft in 1902.
The students used themselves as models for the figure and the faces are actual life masks.

The Seven Muses [1902] – by Students of Lorado Taft / In the image: Mike Baur, Steve Mueller, Terry Schuster, Melanie Costello and Mari Baur.

The sculpture “The Funeral Procession” also known as “The Seven Muses” was designed and executed by students of Lorado Taft in 1902. The piece was the collaborative work of six of Taft’s students who had taken up residence at the colony for the summer. The assignment required each student to create a human figure but left the subject of the sculpture to their collective choice. The end result is a piece with six human figures carrying a casket on their shoulders. The students used themselves as models for the figure and the faces are actual life masks.

Campus lore has it that Taft did not like this sculpture. But he had to see it everyday, as it is close to his studio. Image below shows the sculpture with Taft Studio in the background.

The Eagle’s Nest Art Colony is now Lorado Taft Field Campus, a part of the Northern Illinois University [NIU].