Edward Maene

Washington Memorial Chapel, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

Edward Maene (21 April 1852 in Bruges, Belgium – 4 December 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a Belgian-American architectural sculptor, woodcarver and cabinetmaker. He executed work designed by architects such as Wilson Eyre, Willis G. Hale, Cope and Stewardson, Will Price, Horace Wells Sellers, and Milton B. Medary. His oak choir stalls and reredos at the Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania have been described as "the finest examples of hand carved wood in this country."[1]

Career

Maene learned the stone- and wood-carving trade in his native Belgium, and studied in Paris.[2] He immigrated to the United States in 1881, and settled in Philadelphia in 1883.[3] There is evidence to suggest that he worked as a carver for Daniel Pabst, the premier custom-furniture maker in late-19th century Philadelphia.[4] He opened his own workshop at what is now 239 South Lawrence Court, a half-block east of Pabst's workshop at 269 South 5th Street.[3] Within less than a decade his shop employed "from twenty to twenty-five assistants."[3] His nephew, John Maene (1863–1923), apprenticed in his shop in the 1880s,[5] and was hired as foreman for the Rose Valley furniture shop in 1902.[4] Following the 1906 closure of the Rose Valley venture, the nephew returned to the uncle's shop.[6]

Wilson Eyre

Rowley-Pullman House (altered 1886, demolished 1963).

Maene executed designs by architect Wilson Eyre, working on residential projects such as the Dr. Henry Genet Taylor House and Office (1884), in Camden, New Jersey;[7] a new Dutch Colonial façade for the Rowley-Pullman House (altered 1886, demolished 1963), at 238 S. 3rd Street, Philadelphia;[8][lower-alpha 1] and the Charles Lang Freer House (1892), in Detroit, Michigan.[10] His shop carved exterior stonework for Eyre's City Trust Building (1888, demolished c.1923), at 927-29 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia;[3] and did work on Eyre's Newcomb Memorial Chapel (1894-95, demolished 1954), at Newcomb College in New Orleans, Louisiana.[11]

At the 1887 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Annual Exhibition, Maene exhibited a frieze for an Eyre-designed house at 1022 Walnut Street, Philadelphia.[12][9]

Willis G. Hale

Hale (Lucas) Building (1887).

Maene's shop carved exterior stonework for one of the most notorious buildings in Philadelphia—architect Willis G. Hale's own Hale Building (1887), at the southwest corner of Chestnut & Juniper Streets.[3] A 7-story speculative office building – later known as the Lucas Building, the Keystone National Bank Building, and by other names – it seemed to squeeze an entire Gothic castle's worth of ornament into a narrow city lot.[13] Critic Montgomery Schuyler, writing in the magazine Architectural Record, pronounced it an "architectural aberration": "absurd ... irrational, incongruent and ridiculous," one of "the monstrosities of Chestnut street."[14] "Perhaps the most bizarre-looking skyscraper of the nineteenth century,"[15] it is now beloved by many for its funky awkwardness. Although the first story of its Chestnut Street façade has been altered repeatedly, much of the rest of its exterior remains intact.[16]

Hale designed, and Maene's shop carved exterior stonework for the P. A. B. Widener Mansion (1887-88), at the northwest corner of Broad & Girard Avenues, Philadelphia.[17] The Wideners occupied this for barely a decade—architect Horace Trumbauer soon designed them a Neoclassical palace, Lynnewood Hall (1897-1900), just outside the city. In 1900, the mansion became the Widener Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia.[18] It was destroyed by fire in 1980.[19]

University of Pennsylvania

Provost's Tower (1911), Quadrangle Dormitories.

Charles Custis Harrison became University of Pennsylvania provost in 1894, and immediately removed Frank Furness as unofficial campus architect, replacing him with the young firm of Cope and Stewardson.[20] Beginning with the Quadrangle Dormitories, Harrison and his architects remade the campus in an exuberant Neo-Jacobean Collegiate Gothic style. Maene's workshop provided expert architectural carving for the exteriors of the new buildings, including 69 grotesque reliefs (bosses) for the Quadrangle. These caricatures of people and animals were carved in situ—blank limestone blocks had been mortared in above the second story, and his crew stood upon scaffolding to carve them:

Take, for instance, a boss of a man holding a tankard. The architect makes a rough charcoal sketch of the figure and sends the sketch to the sculptor. The sculptor models it in clay. He makes, in clay, a boss of the same size and the same relief as the real stone boss on the dormitory building is to be. Of course, the charcoal sketch is not much to go by. The sculptor must use his brain in his work. It is not mechanical; it is real creative work on his part, this making of a model from a sketch. After the model has been finished and approved by the architect it is sent out to the University, and the carver sets it up beside him and gets to work on the stone. He measures here and there, makes nicks here and there, and then he proceeds to copy his model. It takes him three or four days to finish one of the fourteen inch bosses. The work must be done with care, delicacy and tact. Only the most skillful carvers are fit to do such jobs.[21]

Maene's team for the Quadrangle grotesques included Professor Henry F. Plasschaert of the Philadelphia School of Industrial Art,[22] who modeled the figures in clay; William John Kaufmann and August Zeller (a former student of Thomas Eakins), who carved most of the grotesques; and Edmund T. Wright, who oversaw the carving and added finishing touches.[23]

Cope and Stewardson also contracted with Maene to carve exterior ornament for the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1900), and for the Quadrangle's War Memorial Tower (1901) and Provost's Tower (1911).

Washington Memorial Chapel

Architect Milton Bennett Medary designed the Washington Memorial Chapel (1908-20), built on the site of the Continental Army's 1777-78 encampment at Valley Forge. Executing Medary's designs, Maene created and carved the oak pews, choir stalls, reredos, and other church furniture. The ornate oak doors were executed in collaboration with metalworker Samuel Yellin.[24]

St. Clement's Church

Altar and chancel (1908-09), St. Clement's Episcopal Church.

Architect Horace Wells Sellers and Maene collaborated on multiple projects for St. Clement's Episcopal Church at 20th & Appletree Streets, Philadelphia.[25] In 1908, Sellers increased the height of the church's apse by about 15 feet (4.6 m), raising the ceiling of the chancel within it.[26] Maene's workshop carved a new red English sandstone altar, eight oak statues of saints, and a baldachin (canopy) above the altar. The shop also made the oak casing for an elaborate painted altarpiece with folding doors.[27] Christ Reigning from the Cross, the altarpiece's 7-panel mural, was painted by artist Frederick Wilson.[28]

Sellers designed and Maene executed the Lady Chapel, which was dedicated in 1915. Its altar, reredos, and groin-vaulted ceiling are all of red English sandstone. The altar front has three arched niches, each with a bas-relief figure of an angel. The reredos features three niches with statues of Saint Joseph and Saint Elizabeth flanking a central statue of the Virgin and Child.[25] The baptismal font was designed by Sellers, and executed by Maene. It was dedicated in 1917.[25] The Lea Memorial Pulpit was based on designs by Sellers, and executed by Maene. It was dedicated in 1921, and the canopy above it (carved by Maene) was added several years later.[25] The Stations of the Cross were designed by Sellers, but never executed by Maene. They were completed by Bruno Zimm, and dedicated in 1932.[25]

St. Mark's Church

Fiske Portal (1922-23), St. Mark's Episcopal Church.

Medary designed the Fiske Portal (1922-23), a new doorway for St. Mark's Episcopal Church at 1607-27 Locust Street, Philadelphia.[29] Executing Medary's designs, Maene created the doors and carved the polychromatic "Christ in Majesty" tableau above them; Yellin fashioned their highly ornate iron hinges and hardware; and Nicola D'Ascenzo installed stained glass between the figures of the tableau, turning the tympanum into a transom.[30] The project was (patronizingly) celebrated as a harmonious collaboration among immigrant artists—"iron work by Samuel Yellin from Poland; wood-carving by Edward Maene from Belgium; stained glass by Nicola D'Ascenzo from Italy."[31]

Other commissions

Grace Episcopal Church (altered 1908-09), Mount Airy.

Architects Milligan & Webber designed The Memorial Church of the Holy Nativity (1898-99), in Rockledge, Pennsylvania.[32] Maene carved a white marble high-relief tableau of The Last Supper for its reredos.[33]

Maene executed work for architect Will Price from the mid-1890s to the mid-1910s.[34] In 1902, Price hired Maene's nephew John to run the Rose Valley furniture shop, which manufactured pieces designed by the architect.[4] That same year, Price designed major interior alterations to the John S. Clarke House in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, although it is unclear whether these were executed by Edward Maene, John Maene, or both.[34]

William Welsh Harrison, heir to a sugar-refining fortune (and brother of the University of Pennsylvania provost), commissioned an elaborate Gothic Revival cabinet to house his First Folio of Shakespeare plays.[35] The commission was given to architect Horace Trumbauer – who had designed Harrison's residence, Grey Towers Castle (1893-97), in Glenside, Pennsylvania – but it was Will Price who designed the piece's highly-carved oak casing.[36] The cabinet featured statuettes of Shylock and Portia, characters from The Merchant of Venice. The piece was not listed in the Rose Valley shop's records, and "was probably made in Edward Maene's shop."[36] Warren Powers Laird, director of the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture, described the Harrison Shakespeare Folio Cabinet as "the finest piece of furniture ever made in this country."[35] Its current whereabouts is unknown.[35]

Architect Edgar V. Seeler designed a new building for The Evening Bulletin, at the northeast corner of Juniper & Filbert Streets, Philadelphia, 1906-08.[37] The façade carving by Maene's shop featured the newspaper's logo: a globe with wings.

Architect Herbert J. Wetherill altered the interior of Grace Episcopal Church, in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, 1908-09. Executing Wetherill's designs, Maene carved the altar, reredos and a 23-foot (7 m) tall rood screen.[38]

St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Perth Amboy, New Jersey was seriously damaged in the 1918 Morgan Munitions Depot explosion.[39] Maene was part of the team that restored the church's interior.[40]

Sellers altered the interior of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, 1924-29.[41] Executing Sellers's designs, Maene created a white marble rood screen[11] and a new set of choir stalls.[42]

In an 1897 advertisement, Maene listed (unspecified) work on other Philadelphia churches: St. Peter's Episcopal Church at 6000 Wayne Avenue; the Church of the New Jerusalem at 22nd & Chestnut Streets; Patterson Memorial Presbyterian Church at 63rd & Vine Streets (c.1895, demolished); Princeton Presbyterian Church at 38th Street & Powelton Avenue (demolished); and a Philadelphia synagogue: Temple Keneseth Israel at Broad Street & Columbia Avenue (1891, demolished).[11]

Business

Maene was profiled in an 1892 business directory:

E. Maene, Sculptor, No. 239 Griscom Street, between Fourth and Fifth, Spruce and Pine.—The demand for decorations in architecture in this country is a growing one; and it is well represented in this city by Mr. E. Maene, whose office and works are at No. 239 Griscom Street, between Fourth and Fifth, Spruce and Pine Streets. This gentleman was born in Belgium, where he first studied his profession, which he has followed for the past twenty-four years. He came to this country ten years ago, coming to Philadelphia two years later, and seven years ago he established business here, meeting with excellent success. He employs from twenty to twenty-five assistants, occupies a two story building 100x40 feet in dimensions, and executes designs for ornamental and statuary work of all kinds. He has done a large amount of carving for residences and public buildings, including the Jewish Temple, Keystone Bank, Bank at 927 Chestnut Street, etc.[lower-alpha 2] His trade extends all over the country. All of Mr. Maene's products bear the stamp of artistic excellence and the imprint of the master's hand. The city is to be congratulated upon the accession of her industries, than which no more praiseworthy institution exists within her boundaries.[3]

The T-Square Club, an association of Philadelphia architects, elected Maene an honorary member.[43] His advertisement in the club's 1896-97 catalogue shows that he had moved his workshop about a half-block, to south of Pine Street:[44]

The listing in a 1900 directory shows his business at the same addresses (although Griscom St. had been renamed Lawrence St.), and his residence in the Bustleton section of Philadelphia.[45]

Personal

Maene married Susanne Menegaux (1856–1916) in 1883, and they had two children, Claire (1887–1967) and Victor (born 1892).[46] He and his wife are buried in the cemetery of Pennepack Baptist Church, Bustleton, Philadelphia. He carved the stone angel holding a lily that marks her grave.[47]

Notes

  1. ↑ A 24-year-old sculptor, Charles Grafly, also worked on the Rowley-Pullman House.[9]
  2. ↑ The Jewish Temple was the Keneseth Israel Synagogue (1891, demolished), at the southeast corner of Broad Street & Columbia Avenue.[11] The Keystone Bank Building (1887), now called the Hale Building, survives at the southwest corner of Chestnut & Juniper Streets. The City Trust Building (1888, demolished by 1923), stood at 927-29 Chestnut Street.

References

  1. ↑ Ellen Fulton, "Work of Local Sculptor Adorns Famous Buildings," St. Petersburg Times, June 30, 1946.
  2. ↑ Glenn B. Opitz, ed. Dictionary of American Sculptors, (Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo Books, 1984).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 E. Maene, Sculptor," Historical and Commercial Philadelphia, (New York: A.F. Parsons Publishing Company, 1892), p. 178.
  4. 1 2 3 Robert Edwards, "The Arts and Crafts Go to Work in Philadelphia, 1876–1926" (PDF), paper presented at the September 20-23, 2012 conference: The Workshop of the World: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
  5. ↑ Robert Edwards, "When You Next Look at a Chair: The Arts and Crafts Furniture of William L. Price," in George E. Thomas, William L. Price: Arts and Crafts to Modern Design (Princeton Architectural Press, 2000), pp. 319-30.
  6. ↑ Solis-Cohen, "Winterthur’s Philadelphia Furniture Forum: What Was Learned?" Furniture News, March 5, 2014.
  7. ↑ Edward Teitelman, "Wilson Eyre in Camden: The Henry Genet Taylor House and Office," Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 15, no. 3 (Autumn 1980), (University of Chicago Press), pp. 229-55.
  8. ↑ Rowley-Pullman House, from Historic American Buildings Survey.
  9. 1 2 Catalogue of the Fifty-Eighth Annual Exhibition, (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1887), p. 62.
  10. ↑ Thomas Walter Brunk, The House that Freer Built, (University of Detroit School of Architecture, 1981), p. 22.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "E. Maene, Sculptor," The American Ecclesiastical Review, vol. 13, no. 6 (December 1897), New York. p. 706.
  12. ↑ Peter Hastings Falk, ed. The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1876–1913, (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1989), p. 322.
  13. ↑ James Foss, Willis Gaylord Hale and Philadelphia's Rebellion of the Picturesque: 1880-1890, masters thesis, Pennsylvania State University, 1964.
  14. ↑ "Architectural Aberrations: No. 9 – The Hale Building," The Architectural Record, vol. 3 (October - December 1893), pp. 207-10.
  15. ↑ Korom, Joseph J., Jr., The American Skyscraper, 1850-1940: A Celebration of Height (Wellesley, MA: Branden Books, 2008), p. 144.
  16. ↑ James Jennings, "Hale Yeah! Renderings Show Hale Building in All of Its Glory," The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 2016.
  17. ↑ Michael J. Lewis, "'He was not a Connoisseur': Peter Widener and his House," Nineteenth Century, vol. 12, nos. 3-4 (1993), pp. 27-35.
  18. ↑ Widener Branch – History, from Free Library of Philadelphia.
  19. ↑ Deborah Boyer, "The Widener Mansion," Philadelphia History Blog, March 5, 2009, Philadelphia City Archives.
  20. ↑ George E. Thomas, et al., Frank Furness: The Complete Works (Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 54-55.
  21. ↑ "Grotesque Designs on Sculptured Bosses," The Monumental News, vol. 12, no. 11 (November 1900), (Chicago, R. J. Haight), p. 619.
  22. ↑ Annual Report of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Issues 16-29. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art. 1894. p. 19. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  23. ↑ "Grotesque Figures Carved in Stone," Stone Magazine, vol. 21, no. 3 (September 1900), (New York: Frank W. Hoyt, publisher), pp. 241-42.
  24. ↑ Edward Maene, woodcarver, from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 About Us – Building, from St. Clement's Church.
  26. ↑ St. Clement Church – Project Chronology, from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
  27. ↑ Roger W. Moss, Historic Sacred Places of Philadelphia, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), pp. 170-72.
  28. ↑ Minna C. Smith, "The Art of Frederick Wilson," The International Studio, vol. 38, no. 152 (October 1909), (New York: John Lane Company), p. 97.
  29. ↑ St. Mark Church – Project Chronology, from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
  30. ↑ Simon J. Bronner, Explaining Traditions: Folk Behavior in Modern Culture (University Press of Kentucky, 2011).
  31. ↑ Allen H. Eaton, Immigrant Gifts to American Life, (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1932).
  32. ↑ Memorial Church of the Holy Trinity – Chronology, from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
  33. ↑ The Last Supper, Memorial Church of the Holy Nativity, from Philly Church Project.
  34. 1 2 George E. Thomas, "The Evolution of the Real Estate Divisions of the Eastern Portion of the Bryn Mawr Campus, the Construction of "the Owl," and Its Historical Color Schemes, Yarrow Street and Morris Avenue, Bryn Mawr College" (1998). (PDF), from Bryn Mawr College.
  35. 1 2 3 Robert Edwards, "Lost," American Decorative Arts.
  36. 1 2 George E. Thomas, William L. Price: Arts and Crafts to Modern Design, (Princeton Architectural Press, 2000), pp. 322-23, 328-29.
  37. ↑ Bulletin Building – Chronology, from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
  38. ↑ "Rood Screen Placed in Grace Church, Mt. Airy," The Churchman, vol. 50, no. 25 (December 18, 1909), New York, p. 950.
  39. ↑ History, from St. Peter's Church, Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
  40. ↑ St. Peter's Episcopal Church – Architects, from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
  41. ↑ St. Luke Church – Project Chronology, from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
  42. ↑ "St. Luke's Germantown, Begins Month's Jubilee Over Rebuilding Completion," Church News, November 1929, (The Diocese of Pennsylvania), p. 57.
  43. ↑ T-Square Club Yearbook (1931).
  44. ↑ Catalogue of the T-Square Club Architectural Exhibition, (Philadelphia: George D. Buchanan and Company, 1897), p. 132.
  45. ↑ 1900 – Boyd's Business Directory of Philadelphia, (Philadelphia: C. E. Howe Company, 1900), p. 470.
  46. ↑ O'Brien, Tom. "Known Work - Edward Maene". Edward Maene. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  47. ↑ Susanne Menegaux Maene, from Find-A Grave.
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