HENRY HERING. MSI. The Columbian Exposition Fine Arts Building

The amount of sculpture on the Museum of Science and Industry is almost mind-boggling. Panels in Relief. Caryatids. And four "Attic" figures above both the North and South Entrances. These four are on the North Facade.

This was just the beginning for Henry Hering. Twenty years of collaboration would follow with both Daniel Burnham and Graham Anderson Probst and White.

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HENRY HERING. MSI. The Columbian Exposition Fine Arts Building

"ATTIC FIGURE" above the central temple entrance to the Museum.  

Young  Henry Hering had reached the ripe age of nineteen when the original of this  piece was completed. 

By 1914 the Museum was showing its age.  Take a look at this photo from the Field Museum Library's photostream.  Philip Martiny's work is visible in the colonnade.  Nice Truck!

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HENRY HERING. Empire State Building. Studio

Very little can be stranger than this photo.  Hopefully Mr. Hering's serenity was alive and well in 1945.

HENRY HERING. MSI. The Columbian Exposition Fine Arts Building.

History is a matter of simple facts. Henry Hering was born in 1874 and died in 1949. He studied under Augustus Saint Gaudens and Philip Martiny. He is credited with the sculpture at the Fine Arts Building at the Columbian Exposition (now the Museum of Science and Industry), working with Daniel Burnham and Charles Atwood and the "greatest assemblage of artists since the Renaissance."

Now add into the mix that Charles Atwood was most probably an opium addict (with just three more years to live), that Jackson Park was a swamp, and that the entire team was struggling under what seemed an impossible deadline. And, oh, yes, with a little addition and subtraction.... Henry Hering was 17 years old when he started on the work of the originals photographed below.

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How does a 17 year old boy produce work with this serenity? How would anybody under those conditions? (Certainly with some guidance from Philip Martiny)  Don't miss the Field Museum Library Photostream at Flickr. Sculpture in this condition doesn't just "happen." It is the result of patient maintenance, restoration, and care. And that remarkable gift of 1919.

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HENRY HERING. Regeneration. Detail

I am always surprised by the camera.  Last night, just after dusk, I snapped these two shots of Henry Hering's "Regeneration"  (on the Michigan Avenue Bridge) in rapid succession.  They should have been the same.  Instead, they are remarkably different and reveal the depth of consideration  Henry Hering had for the face and emotion his "Spirit."

His work at the MSI may deserve a another look.

LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY. Preston Bradley Hall

This sculpted face by Louis Comfort Tiffany is a part of the ornament of each Chandelier in Preston Bradley Hall in the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center.

The Cultural Center was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge in 1897.



THIS IMAGE IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT IMAGES IN THE LOOP.

LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY. The Palmer House

This elegant figure, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, stands in the second floor Lobby of the Palmer House near the entrance to the Empire Room.

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Completed in 1927 by Architects Holabird and Roche, the Palmer House is home to an ensemble of Architecture, Sculpture, and Art that exemplifies the Beaux Arts Tradition in Chicago.

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To see additional photography of Chicago Sculpture Icons visit IMAGES IN THE LOOP