Bronx County Courthouse
Joe created this sculptured group in limestone. It is on the Bronx County Courthouse, also known as the Mario Merola Building, in New York City. Joe’s note on the back of a photo by DeWitt Ward reads: ‘Bronx County Court House’ and ‘located on Walton Ave side of street Concourse Village’.
Another photo of the grouping is labeled “Justice” by Joe with this description: “Limestone panel 12’ x 18’ on the city and Municipal Court House Lafayette St. N.Y.C. William Laxx and Matthew Delxxx, architects.” The architects names are not legible. The building was constructed between 1931 and 1934.
Some descriptions credit Joe entirely for this work but a history of the Mario Merola Bronx County Building has this paragraph; “The tall rectangular block sculptures by Adolph A. Weinman are largely allegorical, paying homage to the history of government by law through the ages, beginning with Egypt, Greece, and Rome. They were created with the assistance of collaborators and sculpted by Weinman and his associates, Edward F. Sanford, George Snowden and Joseph Kiselewski.”
With further study we’ll discover Joe’s relationship with Weinman who was older than Joe and a renowned architectural sculptor.
Water Baby Fountain
We don’t know much about these two sculptures by Joe. We know that Wolfs, a Cleveland Gallery, sold the pudgy statue and called it Mer Baby Fountain. They described it as “a bronze with the dimensions of 14 in. w. x 14 in. l. x 26 in. high.” On the back of Joe’s photo of Mer Baby Fountain is a sticker that reads “Arden Gallery 450 Park Ave New York.”
There is a medium sized brass water baby with the dolphin in the collection at American Heritage Bank in Browerville. See the Am. Heritage Exhibit.
Lee Lawrie
This is a portrait bust of Lee Lawrie. We believe the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland commissioned Joe to do this. Mr. Lawrie was a co-founder of the museum and he was a great supporter of Joe. We don’t know the date of the sculpture.
“Lee Lawrie gave Joe his first job for twelve dollars per week,” writes his grand niece Barb Noland. Joe worked for Lawrie when he moved from Minneapolis to New York.
Joe had extensive thoughts on Lawrie in his autobiography. Here’s an excerpt:
“I was discouraged and disillusioned. I became very homesick. Never having been homesick before, never having met with difficulties or failure, everything seemed hopeless and I was convinced I was a bad sculptor. “But,” I thought, “I can never go back to Minnesota defeated. One reads about great men persisting, in seemingly hopeless situations, striving to their goal to find success in the end. Could that happen to me? No, never!” I compared my circumstances now with the happy years I have had in Minneapolis, became lonely and longed for someone to talk to.”
“Finally, I went to the last sculptor on my list. Lee Lawrie. He took me in his office and asked me how much money I had. This first question, this sign of human interest was music to my ears. He gave me the names of two other sculptors to contact who might employ me.”
“If you do not hear from them, you may work for me temporarily for twelve dollars per week.”
As Barb notes, Joe got that twelve dollar per week job and the temporary job lasted years.
Michael Rapuano
We believe that Joe was commissioned to make this bronze portrait head of Michael Rapuano for the American Academy in Rome.
Michael Rapuano was a landscape architect who served as president of the American Academy in Rome from 1958 to 1968. He was a partner in the landscape architecture firm, Clarke and Rapuano, of New York City, that collaborated with Joe on the Peace monument at the WWII Memorial Chapel in the Veterans Cemetery, Margraten, Holland. Rapuano had a fellowship in landscape architecture at the American Academy in Rome immediately after Joe did.
Joe had a fellowship at the American Academy in the late 1920s, so they had the American Academy in common. Joe also created a bust of the architectural firms other partner, Gilmore Clarke. That bust was commissioned by the American Academy of Design. Interestingly, Rapuano, along with Gilmore Clarke, was also the landscape architect for the American Military Cemetery in Florence, Italy.
John Howard Pew
A bas-relief of John Howard Pew.
John Howard Pew was an oil refinery engineer who eventually took over his father’s oil company, Sun Oil Company. The company was instrumental in developing the Canadian Oil Sands. It is now known as Sunoco. Pew was a philanthropist and was a co-founder of the Pew Charitable Trusts. We don’t know where this sculpture is or when Joe made it. Pew died in 1971.
General Douglas MacArthur
We don’t know anything about this sculpture of Douglas MacArthur by Joe.
Helios - The Rising Sun
Lewis and Clark Composition
Marble Head
Female Bust with Miniatures
Mrs. Albert Hopeman
Alabaster Head
Female Nude
Sketch for Monument
Back of photograph reads "Clay Sketch Figs. 3.75" high"
Miniatures
The following three miniatures are part of Barb Noland's collection. We have no further details on them.
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut
We don’t know when this thirteen inch tall bronze sculpture of U.S. Civil War naval officer Admiral David Glasgow Farragut was created by Joe. It was, however, sold at Cowan’s auction house in Cincinnati June 13, 2014, for $607.00. Joe donated a non-metallic version of this statue to the American Heritage Bank in Browerville, MN. It is on display there with other work done by him. Farragut was the first admiral in the U.S. Navy. The statue is now part of the Paul DeHaan collection of items related to Admiral D. G. Farragut and the USS Hartford
