Lot 15: Carl Paul Jennewein (1890-1978)

Carl Paul Jennewein (1890-1978)
'Indian and Eagle'
inscribed '1929/CP JENNEWEIN' with the artist's device (along the base)
bronze with dark brown patina
55½ in. (141 cm.) high

P.J. Broder, Bronzes of the American West, New York, 1974, p. 290, no. 346, another example illustrated.
S.R. Howarth, C. Paul Jennewein: Sculptor, exhibition catalogue, Tampa, Florida, 1980, pp. 32, 96-97, another example illustrated.
A.H. Mayor, A Century of American Sculpture: Treasures from Brookgreen Gardens, New York, 1981, p. 83, another example illustrated.

The artist.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1977.

In 1928, the American Battle Monuments Commission began plans to erect the Tours War Memorial in France, commemorating the Services of Supply of the American Expeditionary Forces. A leader of the academic sculpture movement in America, C. Paul Jennewein was selected to design a sculptural centerpiece for the monument, designed by architect Arthur Loomis Harmon. Recognized for his highly stylized and elegantly refined forms that became desirable for architectural commissions and large-scale memorials, Jennewein's Indian and Eagle represents the sculptor's mastery of the bronze medium while communicating an inspirational narrative. Indian and Eagle depicts a crouching Native American releasing an eagle, rendered with idealized musculature and an overall rhythm of line and form to convey a message of freedom and to ultimately embody the spirit of America.

Indian and Eagle was awarded the George D. Weidener Memorial Gold Medal in 1932 at the 127th Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The present work is one of four known casts, the other three are currently in the public collections of Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, Ball State University Museum of Art, Muncie, Indiana, and the Tours War Memorial, Tours, France, for which the present work was originally conceived.