Lee Harold Letts (born 1951), American artist, sculptor, painter and goldsmith, is primarily known for his bronze sculptures of birds and animals. His practice is based on the principles of traditional studio craftsmanship, as well as the importance of studying under a master in the manner of the American artists who studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The beauty of nature is the primary theme of his artwork. He holds a unique position as a bronze sculptor trained as a goldsmith.
Philosophy
Letts' philosophy of art is to follow the traditional techniques of the master craftsman, in sculpture, painting, and the art of the goldsmith. However, he stresses that the emotional content and the technical must be on even terms in order for a work to be better than good.
Early life
Frequent visits to Brookgreen Gardens during his youth influenced Letts' artistic development, experiencing in-depth the collection of American sculpture amidst its natural setting. This not only fostered his fascination with the natural world, but also engendered his ideals of the ennoblement of nature through fine art. Brookgreen is also where he first observed the foundry mark of Roman Bronze Works, which would prove to be an important milieu for the artist.
Education and apprenticeships
While in his teens, Letts' artistic abilities were recognized by a teacher who encouraged him towards a career as an artist. Family friend Truman Moore, a 1923 graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, was also a mentor who encouraged Letts to further his studies in drawing and sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. There he became friends with professor and goldsmith David Austin, which led to an apprenticeship with John Franchot of Story Street Goldsmiths at Harvard Square in Cambridge. Studying art history at the Museum School, Letts grasped the importance of craftsmanship and the significance of the role of lost-wax casting in the history of art, especially in the creation of the bronze sculptures and gold objects of the Italian Renaissance. For his own works, Letts grounded his ideals in Classicism, drawing inspiration from artists of the American Renaissance such as Augustus St. Gaudens. Finding the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston lacking the instruction he desired, Letts left for Europe and secured an apprenticeship at Court Jewelers 't Mannetje in The Hague, where he simultaneously studied drawing and painting at the Academy of Art. Returning to the US in 1978, Letts focused on sculpting life-size birds to cast in bronze. He worked from study skins in the collection of the Charleston Museum, and observation from life outside his studio at Longwood (part of the old rice plantation culture on the Waccamaw River) at the Santee Delta, and at the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge between Georgetown and Charleston, South Carolina.
In 1980 Letts met the American sculptor Donald De Lue (1897-1988), who was to become a personal friend and have a strong influence on his career. Letts was the only sculptor that De Lue ever accepted for critical instruction in the Beaux-Arts tradition. In 1981, De Lue critiqued and facilitated the acceptance of Letts' Swallow-tailed Kite to the permanent collection of Brookgreen Gardens. This was one of the last sculptures to go into the collection under the old auspices of Archer Huntington's standards, overseen by De Lue. At the time, Letts was the youngest sculptor ever to be included in the collection.
De Lue wrote in 1985:
... There was a fine school of pioneer artists who recorded so much of our natural wild life now a national treasure of the finest quality. Audubon and Catesby high on this list. Lee Letts, a native of South Carolina has worked in this great American tradition. A most sincere artist devoted to the high principals of his artistic and scientific forbears ... He is a fine naturalist and studies his birds in their natural habitat and he makes many drawings, anatomical studies, clay models and expert bronze castes [sic] doing most of his own chasing choosing his bronze and adding a patina that most suits the type of bird now in everlasting bronze. Mr. Letts ... ably continues as the recorder of native wild life ... He is a perfectionist in all that he executes.