- 68
Adolph Alexander Weinman
Description
- Adolph Alexander Weinman
- Rising Day
- signed: © .A.A.WEINMAN.FECIT., inscribed: ROMAN BRONZE WORKS N.Y. and engraved: No 3 twice on the underside
- bronze, mid-brown patina
Condition
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
In 1880, at the age of 10, Adolf Alexander Weinman emigrated from Karlsruhe, Germany to the United States. He studied at the Cooper Union Art Students League of New York and was a pupil of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Weinman is best known for his architectural sculpture which features on the State Capitol Buildings of Winsconsin, Missouri and Louisiana and also produced designs for coins including the 'Walking Liberty' half dollar and the 'Mercury' half dime.
Weinman's Rising Day was originally conceived as a life-size figure with its female winged pendant, Descending Night, as a commission for San Francisco's Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915. The figures cast in an impermanent material, rose out fountains in the Court of the Universe. After the fair Weinman reproduced both figures in bronze reductions.
RELATED LITERATURE
G.B. Optiz, Dictionary of American Sculptors 18th Century to the Present, Poughkeepsie, 1984, pp. 424-425; T. Tolles ed. American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 2, New York 2001, p. 536-7; L.D. Rosenfeld, A century of American sculpture. The Roman bronze works foundry, Atglen, 2002, p. 61, no. III-98