Willard Newman Hirsch has been hailed as “Charleston’s preeminent sculptor of the twentieth century.” Most artists of the Charleston Renaissance, his slightly older contemporaries, were painters, printmakers, or both, so Hirsch was able to occupy a niche with his work. In a lecture he gave to The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina in February 1945, he stated: “There is widespread belief in the country, not prevalent here, I know, that sculpture was an art of ancient Greece and that all the sculptors died out when Greece fell. I’m the living proof that such is not the case.” Hirsch was widely known for his wit, puns, and sometimes even crude comments.
Hirsch was born in Charleston, South Carolina, into a Jewish family with roots in America dating back to 1798. He attended the High School of Charleston and in 1924 was enrolled at the College of Charleston for a year, but he left after the death of his father. For about five years he worked in an insurance office before moving to New York City, where his uncle had promised him a job. When this job did not materialize, he began art school, a pursuit that came about owing to his aunt, who noticed him molding small figurines from candle wax. She paid his tuition at the distinguished National Academy of Design.
Hirsch prospered at the Academy from 1934 to 1937 and was awarded scholarship funds. In 1935, he took classes at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, which had been established in 1916 to provide education and training for architects, sculptors, and muralists who would work on architectural commissions. Until 1942, he maintained a studio in New York and exhibited at the Academy. However, little of his work remains from this period; nevertheless, photographs document several reliefs of historical and allegorical figures, perhaps for unrealized commissions. Stylistically, these resemble sculptures created under the auspices of the New Deal.
Despite hearing loss, Hirsch joined the United States Army and during 1942–1944 was stationed at Fort Jackson, near Columbia, a mere one hundred and twenty miles from his birthplace. Instead of returning to New York, he settled in Charleston, where he remained for the rest of his career, believing he “could be vastly more useful in my native state than anyplace else.” Almost immediately, he built the city’s first kiln, which allowed him to fire his numerous terracotta pieces. He became active in local art endeavors; he taught at the Gibbes Art Gallery (now the Gibbes Museum of Art) for eight years alongside William Halsey and Corrie McCallum. When a dispute arose over funding, the three of them collaborated and established the Charleston Art School. All three were involved in the Guild of South Carolina Artists, and in 1952, Hirsch served as its president. The following year, he co-founded the Charleston Artist Guild with Elizabeth O’Neill Verner and Alfred Hutty.
In terms of his sculpture, Hirsch was versatile with a variety of media. For example, Hirsch completed many figures from the Old Testament in different types of wood. He also made many monumental steel or bronze sculptures for public universities, county libraries, and public parks. Another commission, his memorial friezes, were made in stone, while portrait heads and busts were made in terracotta. Hirsch made a series of terracotta mothers embracing their children, one of which was Mother and Child. From an interview in 1967, he remarked, "Motherhood will never go out of style." Despite his brusque nature, Hirsch's artwork has been thoroughly woven into community spaces throughout South Carolina, making a lasting impact on the aesthetic of public spaces.