Hans Schuler

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Hans Schuler's monument in Baltimore honoring poet and musician Sidney Lanier. According to the Smithsonian archive (see external links), the monument dates from 1941, was dedicated in 1942, and measures approximately 126 x 168 x 99 inches.
Hans Schuler's monument in Baltimore honoring poet and musician Sidney Lanier. According to the Smithsonian archive (see external links), the monument dates from 1941, was dedicated in 1942, and measures approximately 126 x 168 x 99 inches.

Hans K. Schuler (May 25, 1874 - March 30, 1951) was a German-born American sculptor and monument maker. He was born in Alsace-Lorraine (in what is now part of France), and his family emigrated to the United States while he was still a youngster. He graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland, having studied there at the Rinehart School of Sculpture.

He continued his studies in France at the Julien Academy, studying under Raoul Verlet [1] [2]. Schuler won the Salon Gold Medal in Paris in 1901, the first American sculptor ever to do so. Returning to Baltimore, he built his studio at 7 East Lafayette Avenue in 1906 [3], residing and working in Baltimore for the rest of his life. Schuler served as president of MICA from 1925 to 1951. His works are in the collections of museums including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. His Baltimore studio is still in use as the Schuler School of Fine Arts, founded in 1959 by sculptor Hans C. Schuler (1912-1999), the son of Hans K. Schuler. The Schuler studio/school is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Schuler's sculptures and monuments grace many public places. Among them is a statue of U.S. President James Buchanan in Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C. It is the only public memorial dedicated to Buchanan. On Baltimore's Charles Street, in the area of the main campus of Johns Hopkins University, there are also imposing monuments by Schuler honoring Johns Hopkins and Sidney Lanier. All three of these monuments are large bronzes occupying elaborate stone placements.

While Hans Schuler created many public monuments, he also created extremely sensual examples of free sculpture, including a life-sized and very life-like marble nude - now at the Walters Art Museum - representing the abandoned Ariadne, writhing in sadness and longing. Below is a link to an image and auction record of another Schuler piece of this type, recently sold at Christies in London.

Other works by Schuler can be found in the Arlington National Cemetery, National Portrait Gallery, Fogg Art Museum, Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Maryland Historical Society, University of Virginia, St. John's College (Annapolis, Maryland), Louisiana State University, State University of New York, (Albany and Bronx), and in various parks in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area. He is buried in Loudon Park National Cemetery. Along with sculptor J. Maxwell Miller, Schuler contributed a large relief panel in the Concert Hall at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.

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[edit] Cemetery monuments

Riggs Memorial in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, with bronze sculpture by Hans Schuler
Riggs Memorial in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, with bronze sculpture by Hans Schuler

Like many of the successful sculptors of his day, Schuler created quite a few cemetery memorials. Many of these sculptures are life-sized or even larger than life-sized bronze human figures. Often the figures sit or sprawl across the tombstones in an attitude of grief, nostalgia, pensiveness, or anguish, like fellow mourners at the grave, or ghosts sociably mingling with the living, instead of being perched neatly on pedestals. The Riggs memorial, shown at right, is a good example. The Lanier monument pictured above, while not being a cemetery sculpture, also exemplifies Schuler's knack for presenting figures in this way. Most of the cemetery pieces are located in and around Baltimore. They include:

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