Adolph Alexander Weinman

Adolph Alexander Weinman (December 11, 1870 – August 8, 1952) was a German-born American sculptor and architectural sculptor.

Adolph Alexander Weinman
Adolph Weinman, c. 1917
Born(1870-12-11)December 11, 1870
Durmersheim, Baden, Germany
DiedAugust 8, 1952(1952-08-08) (aged 81)
Port Chester, New York, U.S.
NationalityGerman-American
Education
Known forSculpture

Early life and education
Bas-relief portrait of Weinman by Anthony de Francisci, 1915

Adolph Alexander Weinman was born in Durmersheim, near Karlsruhe, Germany. He immigrated to the United States in 1885 at the age of 14.[1] At the age of 15, he attended evening classes at Cooper Union and later studied at the Art Students League of New York with sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Philip Martiny.

Career

He worked as an assistant to the sculptors Charles Niehaus, Olin Warner, and Daniel Chester French before opening his own studio in 1904.[2] Although Weinman is now best remembered as a medalist, he considered himself to be an architectural sculptor.[3] His steadiest income was derived from the sale of small bronze reproductions of his larger works, such as Descending Night, originally commissioned for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915.[4]

Weinman was a member of the National Sculpture Society and served as its president from 1927 to 1930. His work was also part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.[5] He served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1929 to 1933.[6] He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the National Academy of Design, and the New York City Art Commission, among other organizations.[2]

Death

Weinman died in Port Chester, New York, on August 8, 1952. Following a Mass at Manhattan's St. Patrick's Cathedral, he was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens. Weinman's papers are at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

His son Robert Weinman was also a sculptor. His son Howard Weinman designed the Long Island Tercentenary half dollar commemorative coin.

Works
Weinman's sculpture on the pediment of the Jefferson Memorial, featuring the Committee of Five

Despite his objections, Weinman is still best remembered as the designer of the Walking Liberty Half Dollar, a design now used for the obverse of the American Silver Eagle one-ounce bullion coin, and the "Mercury" dime along with various medals for the Armed Services of the United States. Among these are the identical reverses of the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and the American Campaign Medal. Weinman was one of many sculptors and artists who employed Audrey Munson as a model.

Weinman's work as an architectural sculptor can be found on the Wisconsin, Missouri, and Louisiana state capitols. He became the sculptor of choice for the architecture firm McKim, Mead, and White and designed sculpture for their Manhattan Municipal Building, Madison Square Presbyterian Church (completed 1906 and demolished 1919), Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument, and Pennsylvania Railroad Station (completed 1910 and demolished 1963), all in New York City. A photograph of one of his angels, Day, in a landfill in New Jersey is one of the saddest reminders of the destruction of Penn Station in 1963, but two of his eagles were retained as trophies outside the entrance to the new subterranean Penn Station.[7] Elsewhere he created the dramatic frieze on the Elks National Veterans Memorial in Chicago and executed sculpture for the Post Office Department Building, the Jefferson Memorial, and the interior of the U.S. Supreme Court, all in Washington, D.C.

Weinman's non-architectural works include the Macomb and the Maybury monuments in Detroit.[8] Another example of his non-architectural work is his Abraham Lincoln Statue (Kentucky) located in the center of Hodgenville, Kentucky.[9]

Weinman collaborated with Polish American sculptor Joseph Kiselewski to create a sculpture on the Bronx County Court House in New York City in the early 1930s.[10]

Weinman was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949.

Weinman's works are mostly executed in a lyrical neoclassical style. His figures typically wear classical drapery, but there is a fluidity found in his work that is a harbinger of the Art Deco style that was to follow him. His bronze statuette The Nude Golfer epitomizes this style. This work evokes classical sculpture in its attention to anatomy and movement and the nude status of the athlete while the subject, a modern golfer, provides a modern twist.[11]

Weinman also taught; among his pupils was Eleanor Mary Mellon.[12]

Selected works

Sculpture

Architectural sculpture
Mercury dime (1916)
Walking Liberty half dollar (1916)

U.S. coins and medals
  • 1904 World Fair, Louisiana Purchase Exposition award Medals The obverse of the medal depicts two female figures above the date MCMIV (1904). The tall taller figure is Columbia, with her arms spread wide holding the United States flag. The youthful maiden at her side represents the Louisiana Purchase Territory. Emblematic of her reception into the union, the maiden is divesting herself of the cloak of France, the material decorated with bees, the emblem of Napoleon. In the background is the rising sun, marking the dawn of a new era of progress to the nation. Encircling the two figures are the words “Universal Exposition – Saint Louis – United States of America.”

[15]The reverse shows an architectural tablet inscribed with “Gold Medal” and “Louisiana Purchase Exposition”. Below the tablet are two dolphins symbolizing the nations’ eastern and western boundaries, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Above the tablet is a large eagle with its wings spread. The inscription reads “Gold Medal (Silver and Bronze Medals were also given out) Louisiana Purchase Exposition 1904”. In addition to the medal a diploma of award was also given to the recipient. The medal weights approximately 3.5 ounces.

References

Notes

  1. 1910 U.S. Census, New York City.
  2. "About the Adolph A. Weinman Papers". Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  3. Reiter, Ed (January 31, 2000). "The Weinman Legacy–Part 1". PCGS Library. Archived from the original on May 16, 2011. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  4. "Descending Night". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  5. "Adolph Alexander Weinman". Olympedia. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
  6. Luebke, Thomas E. (ed.) Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 557.
  7. One is illustrated in Walsh, Kevin. Forgotten New York: The Ultimate Urban Explorer's Guide to All Five Boroughs, 2006:169: "Others can be found in Kings Point and Hicksville and as far away as Philadelphia".
  8. Zacharias, Pat (September 5, 1999). "The Monuments of Detroit". The Detroit News. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  9. Federal Writers' Project (1996). The WPA Guide to Kentucky. University Press of Kentucky. p. 120. ISBN 0813108659. Retrieved November 24, 2013.
  10. "Sculpture". Joseph Kiselewski. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  11. "Adolph Alexander Weinman". Fine Art, May 2007. Rago Arts and Auction Center. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011.
  12. Jules Heller; Nancy G. Heller (December 19, 2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-63882-5.
  13. "Statue of General Alexander Macomb". January 4, 2009. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  14. Lloyd, Marshall Davies (August 20, 2006). "Navarre Arms: The Navarres of Meaux and New France". Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  15. https://www.expositionmedals.com/1904/
  16. Lange, David W. A Complete Guide Book to Mercury Dimes (Virginia Beach, Va.: DLRC Press, 1993). ISBN 978-1-880731-17-8.

Bibliography

  • Kvaran and Lockley, A Guide to the Architectural Sculpture of America, unpublished manuscript
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