Catalog of Work

Architectural Installations and Large Memorials

  • 1912 War Memorial, Capron Park, Attleboro, MA. (first commission) Bronze rectangular tablet installed on boulder at the entrance to the park depicting a Revolutionary War battle scene. Commissioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
  • 1913 Museum of Fine Arts Evans Wing, Fenway Facade (right side), 25′ Granite Bas-relief panel representing “Painting,” Boston, MA. Architect: Guy Lowell
  • 1920 Roslindale War Memorial – commission lost to Albert Atkins. A sculptural sketch for the work was done and a photo of it published along with an interview with M.J.Curl in the Herald abt 1920. Article and photo in the Archives of American Art.
  • 1920 Keith Memorial Field Gateway, pair of guarding Eagles and lettered plaque, Brockton, MA
  • 1924-26 New York County Supreme Courthouse, Granite Pediment and Acroteria, Manhattan, NYC, NY  Pediment is 16’H x 104’W x 15″D with 13 figures in relief, Acroteria includes three 13′ statues, Law, Truth and Equity. Architect: Guy Lowell
  • 1926 Memorial to President Samuel Valentine Cole, Architect Ralph Adams Cram, see memorial tablet listing below)
  • 1926-30 Pediment of Archers (Exhibited but never placed, no image, MISSING)
  • abt 1926-30 Mantle decoration for a home by Guy Lowell, assumed to be a 4-5′ wide bas relief MISSING
  • 1931 Church of the Advent, Beacon Hill, Boston, MA. Tympanum over side portal representing St. Gabriel and St. Michael in adoration of the Lord. Memorial to men of the church who died in the war. Gift of Charles Fiske. Architect requesting the tympanum, Ralph Adams Cram.
  • 1931 World War I Memorial, Dedham, MA. Granite relief on high stepped architectural block. Woman standing holding palm branch, one arm raised in victory, laurel wreath crown, inscribed PAX. Architect: Howard Walker
  • 1930 Crucifix for St. Francis Chapel, Marlborough, NH. Life size, wooden sculpture of Christ crucified on a cross. Hung on the outside wall of the apse of the chapel.
  • 1930 Lunette over the entry door of the St. Francis Chapel, Marlborough, NH. Bas relief of St. Francis with a wolf, small child, sheep and birds.The relief is of plaster, colored with pigments.
  • 1942 George Washington Memorial, Fall River, MA.  Granite bust atop high pedestal, flanked by curved benches ending in low pedestals with seated boy and girl figures. Given by the children of the Catholic Diocese.

Lettered Memorial Tablets

  • 1922 Trinity Church, Bronze tablet memorializing the men of Trinity Church who gave their lives in the Great War. 21.75H x 44.25W  Located on the narthex wall to the right of the Copley Square entrance doors to the sanctuary.
  • 1922 Mount Hope Cemetery, town unknown. Bronze tablet found in N.Attleboro’s Mt. Hope Cemetery mounted on a bolder (no documentation by the cemetery, no signature, based on notes in diary. One found in memory of Robert F. Simmons) MISSING?
  • 1924 Boston Public Library, Bronze tablet on the North wall of the Courtyard memorializing employees who served in the World War.
  • 1924 Lettered tablet for Beal (accompanied an elephant fountain piece) MISSING
  • 1926 Lettered memorial tablet for Dr. Perrin (originally proposed in 1922) MISSING
  • 1926 Lettered plaque memorializing Samuel Valentine Cole, President of Wheaton College, Norton, MA, carved in gray-blue slate and placed in the narthex of Cole Memorial Chapel, Architect Ralph Adams Cram.

Portrait Reliefs

  • 1910 W.P.Webber (first commission received for bas-relief portrait) MISSING
  • 1910 Frank D. & L (perhaps sister and brother-in-law) Commission for relief recorded, Diary records relief of Frank cast by Torsky in 1911 MISSING
  • 1910 Omar Khayyam, for Literary Club of Needham, MA
  • 1912 Katherine Howe (child) for Mrs. D. Howe, cast at Torsky 4/10/12 MISSING
  • 1912 Patten relief of child for Mrs. W.S. Patten in S. Natick. Cast at Torsky’s 10/16. Replica ordered 1/13/13, MISSING
  • 1913 Arnold Slade, painter. Rectangular portrait sculpted in Paris and cast in bronze for 30 francs. Clay copy MISSING, last sold to dealer in Maine who has no record or memory of the relief.) Bronze in Private Collection
  • 1913 John Storrs, Paris (inscription gives name, date and location)
  • 1913 Balch relief. Cast at Torsky MISSING
  • 1913 Mrs. Alton Roberts of Brookline commissioned work, MISSING (see next line)
  • 1914 John Roberts, commission from Mrs. Roberts of Marquette Michigan for a relief of her son John MISSING
  • 1914 Reverend Jackson MISSING
  • 1917 Matthews relief (Mrs. Bryant’s mother) MISSING
  • 1918 Thurston baby boy, profile MISSING
  • 19_ Art student with boy’s haircut, private collection
  • 1918 Nathaniel Hathaway at the wheel, Philadelphia PA, private collection
  • 1918 Evans children (Hathaway family, Philadelphia PA) MISSING
  • 1918 Etheldreda Hovey Kleis, sister of Lt. Hovey, Kittery ME. private collection
  • 1918 Sherman MISSING
  • 1918 Henry Ware Clarke, 2nd Lt. killed in France, front view MISSING
  • 1918 Abraham Shuman, Bronze panel placed in Boston City Hospital, 3/4 life size, standing holding lapel, mutton chop whiskers, 3/4 front view. MISSING
  • 1918 Bailey memorial (payment recorded 11/15/18) MISSING
  • 1918 Ensign Charles Emerson Hovey,  killed in the Phillipines in 1911, bronze relief and 2 lettered panels, friend of the Dean Howell family, placed on the Neptune Fountain in Prescott Park,Portsmouth, NH.
  • 1918 Nancy Richmond MISSING
  • 1918 or 1919 George Fordyce Blake, Inventor of the Blake Pump. 3/4 life size, front view, head and shoulders encircled with branches of oak leaves, set in brick wall in Cambridge. Gum wood frame. MISSING
  • 1919 Mrs. Eliza Hathaway profile
  • 1919 Children of Dr. Swift (disappeared) MISSING
  • 1920 Dr. Swift’s daughter’s profile. MISSING
  • 1920 or 1921 Mayor Peters, City of Boston Hall of Fame, replica ordered for himself 11 1/2″ diameter, 2 casts in bronze both in private collections
  • 1922 Abraham Lincoln, Bronze relief backed by Kahn stone for New England Genealogical Society, 24″W x 36″H Gift of Robert Todd Lincoln. private collection.
  • 1922 Charles Eustis (payment received Oct/Nov), on boulder at Cathedral Pines Campground, Eustis, ME
  • 1922-23 Frank W. Benson, Painter and etcher, Museum of Fine Arts, copy given to the artist.
  • 1924 Wheeden front profile, 7 in bronze 7 in silver (Mrs. Jeannine L. Weeden, Providence RI) MISSING
  • 1928 Annie Talbot Cole, carved in 20″ round white marble mounted on gray-blue slate lettered plaque, Cole Memorial Chapel, Norton, MA.
  • 1937  James Timilty, relief for Timilty School hung in the school
  • 1937 Mayor Nichols, Boston Hall of Fame MISSING
  • 1937 Mayor Mansfield, Boston Hall of Fame MISSING
  • 1937 John P. Sutherland, Dean of Boston University Medical School, BU Medical School Library.
  • 19__ Mr. and Mrs. Birch, Colorado (miniatures?) MISSING
  • 19__ Mrs. Henry (Ralph Henry’s mother) MISSING

Portrait Busts

  • 12/1/10 Williams and Emery, MISSING.
  • 2/23/10 Earl Sanborn, painter, 2/7/12 marble base added, exhibited at the MFA, again 2/7/13, exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916. MISSING.
  • 2/7/12 George “Bay” von L. Meyer, Jr., Son of Lectern von L. Meyer, Secretary of the US Navy, cast in bronze and mounted on a marble base, exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916, MISSING.
  • 3/30/12 Miss Iassigi, cast in bronze, MISSING.
  • 4/17/12 Mrs. John S. Lawrence, cast in bronze, MISSING.
  • 6/26/13 “Went to Mr.Ships. His bust had come.” MISSING.
  • 9/14/13 Little Carter girl. Miniature and original cast in plaster?, MISSING.
  • 1912-1913 Berthie Gibbs, Music instructor of Attleboro School, MISSING
  • 1913 Agnes Allen, large one known as Nydia, cast in bronze and mounted on wood, originally exhibited in the first Guild of Boston Artists show, currently at Concord Art Association
  • 1913 Agnes Allen second of two, the smaller probably the masque shown in photo hanging on a wall in a private collection.
  • 4/16/13 George St.John Sheffield, cast in bronze, Yale Boat Club, Attleboro, exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916, MISSING.
  • 5/19/13 Mr. Hinckley, MISSING.
  • 1914 or 1915 Miss Elizabeth Scriven Jackson (with relief of Reverend Jackson), exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916, MISSING.
  • 3/1914 Mrs Batchelder in Brookline (also gave her lessons), MISSING.
  • 1914 Milton Peck, Art student who died in the war, plaster sat on the Studio windowsill for years, broken or lost in moving, MISSING.
  • 1914 Elisabeth (Pratt) Kennedy, MISSING.
  • 1916 Rev. Abraham Mitrie Rihbany, Unitarian Minister, cast in bronze, exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916, MISSING.
  • Baby Head, 1916, Daughter Barbara Allen as a baby, plaster, private collection, exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916.
  • 1917 Mrs. Matthew. MISSING.
  • 1918 George Agassiz, MISSING.
  • 19__ Dudley Pratt, son of Bela Pratt, MISSING
  • 1919  Self-Portrait, plaster, green patina, private collection.
  • 1920 Richmond, MISSING.
  • abt 1920 Carl Van Ness, husband of painter Beatrice Van Ness, North Haven, cast in bronze, in exchange for one of her paintings, Farnsworth Museum, Rockland ME
  • 1920-24  Isabel Tarrant masque, green patina, was in her possession, private collection
  • 1927 Robert Woods. Settlement worker, South End House, Boston, MISSING.
  • 1927 William Isaac Cole, cast in bronze, brother of President Cole, Wheaton College, Norton, MA
  • 1930 Francis Kershaw, Marlborough, NH. White marble, MISSING.
  • abt 1930 Bernard M. Keyes, artist, 1898-1973, cast in bronze, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.
  • 1930’s Buckingham Sears, MISSING. (born 1911, student at SMFA)
  • 1933 Charles G. Connick, wood, Stained Class Window designer, in exchange for window for Tavern Road Studio
  • 1936 & 1937 Dean LeBaron Russell Briggs, Dean at Harvard, President of Radcliffe; Marble original at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; bronze copy at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, MA.
  • 1936 Frederick Allen (son) as a boy of 12, plaster, private collection.
  • 1940 Woodrow Wilson, cast in bronze, half life size, given to Dr. Daniel L. Marsh, President of Boston University for his retirement, gift of the Boston Rotarians, MISSING.
  • 19__ Mr. Correluski, Ironmonger in exchange for lessons, MISSING.
  • 19__ Cushman Clapp, “mother moved out west,” MISSING.
  • 1931 John Weeks, Newton High School moved to Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests
  • 19__ Alfred Uhler, music teacher in Concord, MISSING.
  • 1949 Jane McIntosh Allen, a gift for her engagement to Gordon Allen, private collection, unsigned.

Direct Carvings

Dates are generally unavailable. It is assumed that the wooden carvings were done in the 20’s and the stone carvings after that. Stone carvings were done over time as he had time and inspiration to work on them. Most of them were “ideal” work from his imagination dictated by the stones.

Portrait busts and portrait reliefs carved in wood and marble are listed above under those categories.

  • 1914 Torso of a Dancing Girl, 2 carved in white marble at Concord Art Association and Farnsworth Museum. Bronze exhibited at Boston Art Club, and St. Botolph Club, April 1916, three bronze copies at Museum of Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum and in a private collection.
  • 1914 Marble torso, larger than above, same design
  • 1920’s Madonna and child, golden oak, private collection, exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916.
  • 1920’s Female ecclesiastical figure with book, head covered with a scarf, left hand raised in blessing.
  • abt 1926 Crucifix, life size, carved in oak, St. Francis Chapel, Marlborough, NH.
  • abt 1926 St. Francis holding a bird, stone (granite?), placed on a birdbath in garden behind chapel on Stone Pond, stolen during one winter when left outside, MISSING.
  • 1930s Torso, North Haven green granite, private collection.
  • 1930’s Mermaid, North Haven gray granite, placed in Frank Benson’s garden at Wooster Farm, North Haven, ME, private collection.
  • 1930’s? Head of a Man, primitive style, North Haven gray granite beach boulder, private collection.
  • 1930’s Horse’s Head, North Haven granite beach pebble, private collection.
  • 1930’s Head of a Little Girl, North Haven granite beach pebble, private collection.
  • 1930’s Head of a Young Girl, unfinished, Vinalhaven pink granite, private collection.
  • 1930’s Face with a broken nose, gray granite, unfinished, private collection.
  • 1930-1950?  Dog’s Head, North Haven granite?, private collection
  • 1938 Elephant, North Haven gray granite, private collection.
  • 1938 Egyptian Head, North Haven gray granite, heroic size, exhibited in 1939 New York World’s Fair, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.
  • 1940’s Head of a Woman, Vinalhaven pink granite, heroic size, placed at Goodstay, DuPont Estate gardens, Wilmington, DE, private collection.
  • Female Figure, date unknown

Medallions and Medals

  • 1912 Library Seal/Book Plate (by Dr. Holden via Mrs.Lloyd Elliott).
  • 1920’s? Seven small medallions, copies made in plaster from “shells” or molds by Gordon Allen for family members, circumstantial evidence that all except one were made by Allen, copies made for family. Molds MISSING.
  • 1921-22 Peabody Medal, commission from Charles Coolidge in the Fall on Proposed commissions list from 1922 MISSING
  • 1922-23 Frank W. Benson Medallion, Painter and etcher, Museum of Fine Arts, copy given to the artist. (See above under Portrait Reliefs)
  • 1929 Pegasus Medallion, for Harvard Advocate Building, plaster, Polychromy, original, copy with color, restored to cast new copy for private collection.
  • 1931 Commemorative Medal for Boston Symphony Orchestra for 50th Anniversary, bronze, 2.5″ diam, two copies known one in MFA one in private collection.

Imaginative/Ideal Studies

  • 1912 Jordan Statuette, dancing figurette of Dorothy Jordan exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts with Frogs and Sanborn bust, MISSING. There is a note about a dancing girl broken at an exhibit and lost.
  • 1914 Primeval Prayer, bronze, exhibited at the opening of the Boston Guild of Artists, private collection.
  • 1914 Cain or Cain and his Conscience, bronze, exhibited in the traveling GBA show in 1915-1916, private collection.
  • 1914 Flight of the Arrow, bronze, private collection, also called Archer
  • 1914 Moon Sprite, may be Seated Girl/Woman in private collection
  • abt 1914 The Wave, bronze, The Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME
  • abt 1914 Gladiator Victor, original clay MISSING, bronze exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916, MISSING, plaster cast in private collection
  • abt 1914 Hermes, bronze, MISSING.
  • abt 1914 Orpheus, bronze, exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916, MISSING.
  • 1914 Head relief, excerpt from the Panel of Painting on the Evans WIng of the MFA, exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916. MISSING
  • 1914 Crippled Frog Bookends (2) cast and mounted on marble, exhibited Guild of Boston Artists, Doll & Richards, St. Botolph Club 1916, private collection
  • abt 1915 Japanese Juggler, exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916. MISSING
  • abt 1915 Russian Dancing Girl, exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916. MISSING
  • abt 1915 Auto Mount, exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916. MISSING
  • abt 1914 Spirit of the Antique, bronze exhibited at St. Botolph Club, April 1916, may be Allen’s name for Torso of a dancing girl. MISSING
  • 1916 Mother and Child, bronze, exhibited at St. Botolph Club April 1916, one of 18 of his pieces shown, MISSING
  • 1916 Mother and Child, excerpt of head portion. Alternative sculpture also exhibited, MISSING
  • 1917 Niche figure for Gates (or Gales) MISSING
  • 1918? Mantle decoration for Guy Lowell, Architect, MISSING.
  • 1920 -1924 Eros, Cupid boy figure for Arthur Davis, Mill Neck Long Island, copy held by Guy Lowell in Swampscott, both figures MISSING.
  • 1929-30 Pediment of Archers, exhibited at an Alumnae Show, never placed, MISSING.
  • 1929 Pegasus Medallion, plaster cast for Harvard Advocate, private collection.
  • 1959 Fisherman, plaster cast, unsigned, private collection.
  • 1960 Pegasus, sculpmetal? MISSING
  • 1960 Tree Trunk for Hallowells in North Haven, MISSING.
  • 1961 Leaping Fish, sculpmetal, made for Mrs. Jennings in North Haven, ME, MISSING
  • 19__ Angel candlesticks, plaster copies held in private collections. Cast #IV, polychromy plaster in private collection

Fountain Pieces

  • 1912 Frog, listed as “Frog (large) for rock” on commissions list. MISSING
  • 1913 Duck Boy, for G.K.Billings, Santa Barbara, CA, exhibited at Concord Art Association in their Ninth Annual Exhibition in 1925. Copy made for Lowell. MISSING.
  • 1913 Dolphin Fountain for Mrs. E. Alford, Brookline, MA, cast in bronze, MISSING.
  • 1912-13 Boy Fountain (perhaps “boy with foot on turtle”) cast in bronze, MISSING.
  • 1914 Boy with Goatskin, Piping Rock Club, Long Island, MISSING.
  • 1915 Elephant Fountain for Beal, MISSING.
  • 1919 “Fountain Figure” of a young girl. Daughter Barbara posed at age 4, round base with rams heads joined by festoons, MISSING.
  • 1922 Frog Fountain, (listed as paid in 1922), exhibited at MFA with 2 Crippled Frogs, Sanborn bust and Jordan statuette, MISSING.
  • 1922 Grotesque Masque/Satyr, for fountain in courtyard of Tavern Road Studio, stolen from North Haven boathouse and still MISSING.

Masques (Life and Death) and Casts

DEATH MASQUES

  • 1910 J.H.Parker, father Powell Converse, father-in-law of H.E. Converse.
  • 1910 Mr Quincy, author, on Charles Street at M.DeWolfe home.
  • 19__ Mr. Converse.
  • 1912 Professor Rotch, meterologist, founder of Blue Hills Conservatory, more than one cast in bronze by Caproni.
  • 1913 John Storr‘s mother in Paris after operation for appendicitis.
  • 1913 Dr. Sanford, ordered by Dr. Holden, never taken because body had changed too much.
  • 1921 Charles McVeigh, Dublin, NH.
  • 1922 H.B.Parke, Arlington Heights, MA.
  • 1923, Mrs. Stanley King
  • 1923 Daughter of Mrs King, age 5 1/2, taken the same day.
  • 1924 George S. Summer/Sumner, 1471 Beacon Street, Boston, MA.
  • 1925 Woods Bobcat, A16 Bond Street
  • 1933 Arthur Lyman, Waltham
  • 1930? Francis Kershaw, Bond Street, Cambridge, MA.
  • 1934 Dean LeBaron Russell Briggs, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA.

LIFE MASQUES

  • 1910 Henry James, novelist, “stayed for dinner.”
  • 19__ Peramino, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital
  • 19__ Bowditch man and his girlfriend in North Haven
  • 19__ Richard Coolidge
  • 19__ Miss Grace Nichols
  • 1926 Gino Tengieri
  • 1936 DiChico, at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
  • 1936 Adio diBiccari, at SMFA.
  • 1936 Ruth Edmonds, at SMFA.

OTHER MASQUES

Comedy and Tragedy (last seen in the boathouse in North Haven, ME)

HAND CASTS

  • 1913 Mrs. Alton Roberts of Brookline commissioned work, MISSING, cast of baby’s hand
  • 1918 Took a cast of the hand of Professor George Agassiz of Harvard and North Haven, cast in bronze.
  • 1938 Conductor Serge Koussevitsky, Boston Symphony Orchestra
  • 19__ Hand casts of the sculptor’s children.

Wax Medical Replicas

1909-1911 Dermatology medical models for study, made using the Lost Wax Process, for Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Bowen supervising as Professor of Dermatology and Syphilis, funding by Dr. Weld. Diseased body parts cast and colored realistically from behind. MISSING.

Work for Bela Pratt as Assistant

  • 1910 Nurse Monument, January through May.
  • 1911 Soldier for Abington Monument Arch, 6′ bas relief from a live model, sailor opposite by Miss Wollett.
  • 1911 Eagle for Abington Arch, made in July in the round for the top of the arch, armature by Recchia and Paramino.
  • 1911 Nathaniel Hawthorne memorial statue, made the armature and worked on the modeling from April until June,
  • 1912 Accompanied Pratt to Gorham to see casting of Hale Memorial for Boston Public Garden.
  • 1912 Horse, mentioned twice in October then again in January and February, Polo Pony mentioned in Sept. 1912,  Feb.1913 also made studies of bridles for Polo Pony with work on the pony listed for 8 days in March.
  • 1913 Lord Jeffrey Amherst started 2/6, listed as “Equestrienne” in Jan-Feb 1913 and in February variously as Lord Amherst equestrienne, Amherst and the horse, Amherst horse.
  • 1913 School Boy, assisted Pratt on it in January
  • 1913 Roman Horseman noted twice in February and twice in April
  • 1913 Cast horse’s head in March. “Torsky at Pratt’s casting.”
  • 1914 Modeled the seagull and a squirrel for a fountain commission.

Miscellaneous

  • 1910 Cast 3 figures
  • 1910 Cast 8-pc mold for Miss Bowdich
  • 1912 Model of Mrs. Macy’s cat
  • 1912 Bid on lions for Boston Public Library, lost to Lewis St. Gaudens.
  • 1915 Paid for Auto figures, Shields, and Enlarging fountain for Mrs. Bryant.
  • 1917 Paid for Plaster casting, small Statue of Liberty, Enlarging fountain maid.
  • 1918 Sold torsos to Curtis, Bush and Platt, Paid for casting and plaster, Paid for work on archer and crane, Paid for mantle piece
  • 1918 Sold torso to “New York Museum.”
  • 1924 Paid for Scale Model of School (assume SMFA)