C. Paul Jennewein
Carl Paul Jennewein (December 2 1890 - February 23 1978) American sculptor, was born in Stuttgart, Germany and arrived in the United States in 1907.
Early career
He was apprenticed with the firm of Buhler and Lauter in New York where he received his early training. His evenings were spent taking classes at the Art Students League. Much of his early work was as a muralist, including, in 1912, four murals for the Woolworth Building; the first building to be called "the Cathedral of Commerce." In 1915 Jennewein was naturalized as a United States citizen, and he almost immediately entered the Army. In 1916, however his tour was cut short when he was awarded an honorable discharge after receiving the Prix de Rome, the most highly sought after art award of the day: one that allowed him to study at the American Academy in Rome for the next three years. It was in Rome that Jennewein finally turned all his attention to sculpture.
Architectural Sculpture
- Lincoln Life Insurance Building in Fort Wayne Indiana 1923
- Education Building, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 1931
- British Empire Building at Rockefeller Center in NYC 1932
- pediment, Philadelphia Museum of Art 1933
- Justice Department Building, Washington D.C. 1934, where the sculptor contributed over 50 separate sculptural elements and served as the overall design consultant, in collaboration with Zantzinger Borie and Medary
- Kansas City City Hall in Kansas City Missouri 1936
- Finance Building, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 1938
- two stone pylons at the Brooklyn Library in NYC 1939
- Dauphin County Court, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, exterior and interior 1941
- Fulton County Building Annex in Atlanta Georgia 1950
- West Virginia State Office Building in Charleston West Virginia 1950
- two panels inside the White House, Washington D.C. 1954
- two monumental figures for the Rayburn Office Building, both in Washington D.C. 1964
Later career
The work that he is probably best known for today, and which garnered him much praise when it was unveiled in 1933, was the polychromed figures in the pediment of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Jennewein was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949.
In the course of his career Jennewein produced at least five monumental eagles: one at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, another on the Arlington Memorial Bridge, connecting Arlington with Washington, D.C., the third on the Federal Office Building in New York, the fourth, a Spanish-American War Memorial in Rochester, New York.
The fifth was at Ardennes Memorial located in Neuville-en-Condroz in Belgium. He also produced somewhat smaller eagles for the gates of the United States Embassy in Paris, France.
Jennewein's sculpture, which never strayed too far from the classical ideals that he had come to so admire while in Rome, became increasingly modernized and his style comfortably fits into the Greco Deco category.
Jennewein's work received some attention when his Noyes Armillary Sphere disappeared during a riot in Washington, D.C. in the turbulent 1960s. It has not yet been recovered.
Jennewein, who died on February 23 1978, was not around when his works were featured in the news in 2002. At that time Monica Goodling former Director of Public Affairs for the United States Department of Justice, ordered two of his semi-nude figures in the Justice Department Building in Washington, D.C. covered up. Most speculation has linked this move to the exposed breast on the female figure, "The Spirit of Justice".
References
- Goode, James M. The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington D.C. 1974
- Gurney, George, Sculpture and the Federal Triangle, Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington D.C. 1985
- Howarth, Shirley Reiff, C. Paul Jennewein: Sculptor, The Tampa Museum, Tampa Florida 1980
- Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture of America, unpublished manuscript
- Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina, 1968
- Williams, Oliver P. County Courthouses of Pennsylvania: A Guide, Stackpole Books, Machanicsburg, PA 2001