Carl Paul Jennewein

Contents

1 Biography 2 Architectural Sculpture 3 Images 4 References:

Biography

C. Paul Jennewein (December 2, 1890 - February 23, 1978) American sculptor, was born in Stuttgart, Germany and arrived in the United States in 1907. He was apprenticed with the firm of Buhler and Lauter in NYC 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 Pix de Rome, the most highly sought after art award of the day: one that allowed his 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 DC 1934
• City Hall Building 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 DC 1954
• two monumental figures for the Rayburn Office Building, both in Washington DC 1964

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.

In the course of his career Jennewein produced at least five monumental eagles: one at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington VA, another on the Arlington Memorial Bridge, connecting Arlington with Washington DC, the third on the Federal Office Building in NYC, the forth, a Spanish-American War Memorial in Rochester NY. 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 DC in the turbulent 1960s. It has not yet been recovered.

Fortunately, Jennewein, who had let go of life on February 23, 1978, was not around when his works were featured in the news in 2002. At that time US Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered two of his semi-nude figures in the Justice Department Building in Washington DC covered up.

Images

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 the United States, 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