19th & 20th Century European Sculpture

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Lot 159
  • 159

Adolph Alexander Weinman, 1870-1952

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Description

  • Adolph Alexander Weinman
  • The duet
  • signed: A. A. WEINMAN. SC., inscribed: ROMAN BRONZE WORKS N-Y- #
  • bronze, modulated green-brown patina

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.

The figure of the faun in The Duet relates to the Narcissus Weinman exhibited to great acclaim at the National Sculpture Society of New York in 1923. The Duet represents Pan, the Greek god of shepherds and music, teaching a child to play the pipes. It is reminiscent of an Antique model of Pan teaching the shepherd Daphnis to play the pipes attributed to Heliodorus. A 2nd Century Roman copy of the Antique model is in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

Casts of The Duet are in the collections of the Century Association New York and Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.

RELATED LITERATURE
Opitz, pp. 424-425; Hirsch & Adler, no. 46, p. 79