Caspar Buberl
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Caspar Buberl (1834 – August 22, 1899), was an American sculptor. He is best known for his Civil War monuments, for the terra cotta relief panels on the Garfield Memorial in Cleveland, Ohio (depicting the various stages of James Garfield's life), and for the 1,200-foot-long frieze on the Pension Building in Washington, D.C..
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[edit] Biography
Born in Königsberg, Bohemia, (now Kynsperk nad Ohrí, Czech Republic), as a young man Buberl studied art in Prague and Vienna before immigrating to the United States in 1854. In 1882 Montgomery C. Meigs was chosen to design and construct the new Pension Building, now the National Building Museum, in Washington D. C. and, in doing so, broke away from the established Greco-Roman models that had been the basis of government buildings in Washington up until then, and was to continue to be following the Pension Building's completion. Meigs based his design on Italian Renaissance precedents, notably Rome's Palazzo Farnese and Plazzo della Cancelleria.
Included in his design was a 1,200-foot-long sculptured frieze executed by Buberl. Since creating a work of sculpture of that size was well out of Meigs' budget, he had Buberl create 28 different scenes [totaling 69 feet in length), which were then mixed and slightly modified to create the continuous parade that includes over 1,300 individual figures. Because of the way that the 28 sections were modified and intermixed, it is only by somewhat careful examination that the frieze reveals itself to be the same figures repeated some eighteen times. The sculpture includes infantry, navy, artillery, cavalry and medical components as well as a good deal of the supply and quartermaster functions, since Meigs had overseen the latter two functions during the Civil War.
Meigs insisted that any teamster included in the Quartermaster panel "must be a negro, a plantation slave, freed by war". This figure was ultimately to assume a position in the center, over the west entrance to the building.
Buberl created dozens of Civil War statues and monuments for various cities and states, including several for New York veterans associations to be placed on the Gettysburg Battlefield. His impressive New York State Monument crowns Cemetery Hill, and a number of individual memorials for specific regiments dot the battlefield.
He died in New York City.
[edit] Leading works
[edit] Monuments on the Gettysburg Battlefield
- 9th New York Cavalry Monument - dedicated July 1, 1888
- 4th New York Independent Battery - dedicated July 2, 1888
- 5th New York Cavalry Monument - dedicated July 3, 1888
- 126th New York Infantry - dedicated October 3, 1888
- 10th New York Cavalry Monument - dedicated October 9, 1888
- 54th New York Infantry - dedicated July 4, 1890
- 111th New York Infantry Monument - dedicated June 26, 1891
- New York State Monument - dedicated July 2, 1893
- 41st New York Infantry - dedicated July 3, 1893
- 52nd New York Infantry - dedicated July 3, 1893
[edit] Other Civil War monuments
- Civil War Monument, Manchester, New Hampshire, George Keller, architect, 1879
- Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Buffalo, NY, George Keller, architect, 1884
- Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Nashua, New Hampshire, 1889
- Alexandria Confederate Memorial, Alexandria, Virginia, 1889
- A.P. Hill Monument, Richmond, Virginia, 1892
- Howitzer Monument, Richmond, Virginia, 1892
- Confederate Monument, University of Virginia Cemetery, Charlottesville, VA, 1893
[edit] Other memorials and monuments
- Fulton Memorial, Fulton Park, Brooklyn New York, 1872
- Fireman's Memorial, Church Square Park, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1891
- Dewey Triumphal Arch, Spanish-American War, New York City, 1899
[edit] Architectural sculpture
- Columbia Defending Science and Industry, National Museum/Art and Industries Building, Washington D.C., Adolph Cluss, architect, Montgomery Meigs, associate architect , 1881
- Pension Building Frieze, National Building Museum, Washington D.C., Montgomery Meigs, architect, 1883
- James A. Garfield Memorial, Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio, George Keller, architect, 1890
- Hartford Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, Hartford, Connecticut, George Keller, architect, 1890
[edit] Pension Building Frieze
 Pension Building|National Building Museum |
 Corner figures |
 West entrance |
 Black teamster |
[edit] Images of the James A. Garfield Memorial
 James A. Garfield Memorial, Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio, 1890, George Keller, architect |
 James A. Garfield Memorial detail - Garfield, the Educator |
 James A. Garfield Memorial detail - Garfield, the Civil War Hero |
 James A. Garfield Memorial detail - Garfield, the Martyred President |
[edit] Images of Hartford and Buffalo memorials
 Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch, Hartford, Connecticut, 1885, George Keller, architect |
 Hartford detail |
 Buffalo Civil War Monument |
 Buffalo detail |
[edit] References
- Camden, Richard N., Outdoor Sculpture of Ohio, Chagrin Falls, Ohio: West Summit Press, 1980.
- Craven, Wayne, The Sculpture at Gettysburg, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Eastern Acorn Press, 1982.
- Gaede, Robert C., and Robert Kalin, Guide to Cleveland Architecture, Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1990.
- Goode, James M., The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington D.C., Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1974.
- Hawthorne, Frederick W., Gettysburg: Stories of Men and Monuments, Hanover, Pennsylvania: The Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides, 1988.
- Kuckro, Anne Crofoot, Hartford Architecture, Volume One: Downtown, Hartford, Connecticut: Hartford Architecture Conservatory, Inc., 1976.
- Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture in America, unpublished manuscript
- McDaniel, Joyce L., The Collected Works of Caspar Buberl: An Analysis of a Nineteenth Century American Sculptor, Wellesley, Massachusetts: MA thesis, Wellesley College, 1976.
- Ovason, David, The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital, New York City: Perennial, 2002.
