Background
Harvey, Eli was born on September 23, 1860 in Ogden, Ohio, United States. Son of William P. and Nancy M. Harvey.
Harvey, Eli was born on September 23, 1860 in Ogden, Ohio, United States. Son of William P. and Nancy M. Harvey.
Pupil Academy of Fine Arts, Cincinnati, under professors Leutz, Noble and Rebisso. Academie Julian, Paris, under Lefebvre, Benjamin Constant and Doucet: at the Academie Delecluse. under Delance and Callot, and with Fremiet, at the Jardin des Plantes, for animal sculpture.
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, 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, 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. His home is included on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Clinton County, Ohio.
"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:.
Member Architectural League (emeritus), New York Zoöl. Society (life), American Art Association of Paris (charter). Member Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts, Paris, 1928.
Married Mary Anna Baker, June 1893 (deceased. Married second, Grace G. Harvey, June 8, 1921 (deceased. Married 3d, Edith James, April.