Q. David Bowers
WARNER, Olin Levi
Born in West Suffield, Connecticut on April 9, 1844, the son of itinerant minister Levi Warner and his wife and blood relative Sarah B. (Warner) Warner, Olin Levi Warner was a descendant of Col. Seth Warner, the Revolutionary War hero. Olin Levi Warner attended public schools in Amsterdam, New York until the age of 15, when he enrolled in the Seward Institution, an educational facility operated by an uncle. Two years later he moved to Brandon, Vermont and went to school there.
As a youth, Warner became interested in sculpture and produced models in chalk and plaster of paris, an early example of which was a bust of his father, exhibited at the Vermont State Fair. In 1869 Warner realized his life's ambition and taking his life savings of $1,500 sailed to Europe, where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, 1869-1872, and also worked under Francois Jouffroy, Jean Alexandre Joseph Falguiere, and Marius Jean Antonin Mercie. The year 1870 was one of political upheaval in France, and Warner enlisted for a brief stint in the French Foreign Legion.
For a time Olin Levi Warner earned money as a workman in the decorative sculpture studio of Jean Baptiste Carpeaux, who recognized his talent and invited him to become a student, but Warner, seeking to go back to his native country, declined.
In the autumn of 1872 he returned to America and established a studio in New York City, but after four years of effort and very few commissions, he decided to give up art and become a farmer. However, around that time the president of the Southern Express Company, a Mr. Plant, commissioned him to do busts of himself and his wife. In 1878, Daniel Cottier, who was opening an art gallery in New York City, invited Warner to exhibit the bust of Mrs. Plant, which subsequently drew wide admiration. By that time Warner's bust of President Rutherford B. Hayes and his portrait of actor Edwin Forrest, shown at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, had drawn excellent reviews. After this time Olin Levi Warner, by now a full member of the National Academy, received much work, and his success was assured. In 1878 he became a founding member of the Society of American Artists, a group set up by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
He went on to create many sculptures including works of epic proportions for the building of the Long Island Historical Society, five large heads for the Pennsylvania Railroad station in Philadelphia, and a large statue of Connecticut Governor Buckingham. A fountain created for Portland, Oregon in 1888 was considered to be a particularly attractive work. In the early 1890s he modeled a portrait in plaster of Columbus, which was widely reproduced on admission tickets, medals, and other items among which were the 1892-1893 Columbian half dollars. The portrait was on exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.
In 1886 he married Sylvia Martinache. The union produced two children who lived to adulthood. Commissioned to create three bronze doors for the Library of Congress, Warner died on August 14, 1896 (following injuries sustained in a riding accident in Central Park, New York City) before the work could be completed, although one, titled Tradition, was finished (and the project was assumed by sculptor Herbert Adams). In 1897 his widow arranged an exhibit of 55 of his sculptures at Tiffany & Co., New York. Although he enjoyed success in his career for only 20 years, Warner left a legacy of work which placed him among the more accomplished sculptors of the late 19th century.
Commemorative credit: 1892-1893 Columbian half dollar (he created models which were used by the Mint; Warner received no credit for this).
WEINMAN, Howard Kenneth
Howard Kenneth Weinman was born on January 23, 1901, the son of sculptor Adolph M. Weinman (who was to design the 1916 "Mercury" dime and Liberty Walking half dollar) and Margaret L. Landman Weinman. Educated in the public schools of New York City, he studied drawing, painting, and sculpture at the National Academy of Design (1920), Grand Central Art School of the N.A.D. (1927), and the N.A.D. again 1932-1935 (winning first prize for life drawing in the latter year). He was a member of the National Sculpture Society (New York).
During his career Howard Kenneth Weinman created many works including portraits of Theobald Smith (Rockefeller Institute, New York City) and R. Lloyd Jones (Tulsa, Oklahoma), and the seal of Brookgreen Gardens (South Carolina). He worked with muralist Ezra Winter in 1929; with his father Adolph A. Weinman as a sculptor in Forest Hills, New York 1929- 1936; and as an instructor of drawing, modeling, and composition at the Grand Central Art School 1936-1941. He worked as an experimental designer and engineer at Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, Bethpage, New York, 1941-1961. Here he was able to apply his penchant for machines and things mechanical as well as his artistic flair.
On June 30, 1934, he married Elisabeth Stevenson Delano. The couple had no children. He retired to Vermont in 1961 and died there in 1976. His brother, Robert A. Weinman, born in 1915, became a distinguished sculptor and medalist.
Commemorative credit: 1936 Long Island Tercentenary half dollar.