Dear ARLIS/NA COlleagues,
I have a student here who is researching American sculptor, David
Brenner. He is primarily known for his design of the "Lincoln penny,"
but also designed a large sculptural fountain in Pittsburgh. The
foundtain is located in front of our Henry Clay Frick Fine Arts Buliding
(was in place before this building was created) and is situated at the
tip of Pgh's Schenley Park. The sculptural fountain is entitled "Aong
to Nature" and dates 1913-1918.
The student has several questions and I am hoping that some of you may
have some leads for him.
Brenner designed the Lincoln penny in 1909 and was otherwise,
presumably, a busy adn successful medallion designer. But what might
have motivated him to enter a public monument competition in Pittsburgh?
How would he have heard of such a competition? Where would the Pgh
Art Commission have announced its commission? (I am, of course,
assisting him with all these questions too!)
Are there any letyters, correspondence, surviving sketches or plaster
casts of Victor David Brenner?
George Gery Bernard's figurd of "Pan" in the sculpture, was, according
to Harper's Weekly" of November 4, 1908, the largest bronzse cast ever
made in America, and Bernard received a gold medal in the 1901
Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, NY in the sculpture category.
Victor D. Brenner took a bronze medal at that same exhibition. This is
the closest direct precedent the student has found to Brenner's pan and
nymph in Pittsburgh.
Barnard's "Pan" is now at Columbia University. Could H. Van Buren
Magonigle have designed both circular bases - - on the Schenley fountain
in Pgh and also the one at Columbia?
The stuent has also learned that H. Van Buren Magonigle, designer of the
Schenley granite base in Pgh, has papers from this period (1913-1918) in
the archives of the NY Public Library.
Can any of you -- at Columbia and NYPL and Buffalo and Archives of
American Art OR others who might know something ahout Brenner -- give
our student any advice about how to learn if any of that archive
o-pertains to his association with Brenner for the Schenley fountain in Pgh?
Our student's name is Don Simpson (Art History Major) and he is enrolled
in Prof. Kirk Savage's seminar on American Monuments.
(Our library has found some information in a book on Pittsburgh
sculpture and he has searched the special files in the Pennsylvania Room
of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and checked with University
Archives and also the Archives at teh Western PA Historical Society.
Thanks so very much, in advance, for any assistance you can provide!
Please send answers to me directly and I will pass them along to Don.
Ray Anne
--
Ray Anne Lockard,
Bibliographer and Public Services
Frick Fine Arts Library
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Voice: 412-648-2411
Fax: 412-648-7568
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
"A book should be a ball of light in one's hand."
Exra Pound
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