Charles Henry Niehaus
Charles Henry Niehaus (January 24, 1855 – June 19, 1935), was an American sculptor, born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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[edit] Education
Niehaus began working as a marble and wood carver and then gained entrance to the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati and later studied at the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany. The effect of the German study was that he retained much of the neo-classic flavor in his art while most other sculptors of his generation were drawn towards beaux-arts realism.
[edit] Career
Niehaus returned to America in 1881 and by virtue of being a native Ohioan was commissioned to sculpt a monument to the recently assassinated President Garfield, who was also from Ohio. Following that he created a statue of Ohioan William Allen that was placed in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol in Washington D.C., along with his statue of Garfield. In later years he was to place statues of John J. Ingalls (Kansas, 1905), Henry Clay (Kentucky, 1929), Ephraim McDowell (Kentucky, 1929), Zachariah Chandler (Michigan, 1913), Oliver P. Morton (Indiana, 1900) and George W. Glick (Kansas, 1914) in the Hall, making his eight statues represented there five more than any other artist. However, the Glick statue was replaced in 2003, and the Chandler statue is being replaced as of 2009.
Monuments by Niehaus can be found in many American cities. Several of the works authored by him are equestrian statues. As was the case with other sculptors of his day he also fashioned a fair amount of architectural sculpture.
Niehaus died at his home in Cliffside Park, New Jersey.[1]
[edit] Public monuments
- The Scraper; or Greek Athlete using a Strigil, Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina, 1883
- President James Garfield, Piatt Park, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1887
- Trenton Battle Monument, Trenton, New Jersey, 1891–1893
- Moses and Gibbons, for the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. 1894
- Joel Barlow (ca. 1885), George Berkeley (ca. 1885), John Davenport (1889), Jonathan Edwards (1895), Thomas Hooker (1889) and John Trumbull (1895) Connecticut State Capitol, Hartford, Connecticut
- Abraham Lincoln (1900), David Farragut (1900), and William McKinley (1902), and Charles Hackley, Hackley Park, Muskegon, Michigan
- The Samuel Hahnemann Memorial, in Scott Circle, Washington, D.C., 1900
- General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Forrest Park, Memphis, Tennessee, 1905
- Apotheosis of St. Louis (Image), Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri, 1906
- William McKinley statue and a lunette for McKinley's tomb, at Canton, Ohio, 1907
- John Paul Jones, United States Military Academy, Annapolis, Maryland and the John Paul Jones Memorial in West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C., 1912
- Francis Scott Key Monument (Orpheus with the Awkward Foot), Fort McHenry National Monument, Baltimore, Maryland, 1922 [2]
- Planting the Standard of Democracy in Honor of Newark's Soldiers, Newark, New Jersey, (1923)
- The Driller, at Titusville, Pennsylvania, in memory of Colonel Edwin Drake, who in 1859 sank the first oil well in Pennsylvania (1901)
- Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, Indiana (1908)
- At least 30 Civil War Monuments and several World War I memorials.
[edit] Architectural sculpture
- Hooker's March, Connecticut State Capitol, Hartford, Connecticut relief panel, 1895
- Triumph of Law, Appellate Court House, New York City, pediment, 1896–1900
- The Astor Memorial doors, Trinity Church, New York, 1895
- Kentucky State Capitol Building, Frankfort, Kentucky, pediment, 1907
[edit] References
- ^ Staff. "CHARLES H. NIEHAUS, NOTED SCULPTOR, DIES; Designed the Francis Scott Key Memorial in Baltimore and Many Washington Statues.", The New York Times, June 20, 1935. Accessed March 22, 2011. "CLIFFSIDE PARK, N. J. - Charles Henry Niehaus, noted sculptor of the Francis Scott Key Memorial in Baltimore and the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial at Newark, N. J., died 8 o'clock tonight at his home, 40 Grant Avenue. He was 80 years old."
- ^ Key Memorial Approved, NY Times
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Charles Henry Niehaus |
[edit] Sources
- Bzdak, Meredith Arms, photographs by Douglas Peterson, Public Sculpture in New Jersey: Monuments to Collective identity, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1999
- Connecticut State Capitol Statuary, The League of Women Voters of Connenticut: Education Fund
- Hardin Campen, Richard N., Outdoor Sculpture in Ohio: A Comprehensive Overview of Outdoor Sculpture in Ohio, Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Present, West Summit Press, Chagrin Falls, Ohio, 1980
- Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture of America, unpublished manuscript
- Opitz, Glenn B , Editor, Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie NY, 1986
- Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina, 1968
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Niehaus, Charles Henry". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
