Following his return from Paris Hering worked as an assistant to Augustus Saint-Gaudens until Saint-Gaudens' death in 1907. In 1910 Hering married another long time Saint-Gaudens' assistant, Elsie Ward, who gave up her independent career as a sculptor, to serve as her husband's assistant.
Hering is further remembered in relation to the crash of an American B-25 military airplane into New York City's Empire State Building on July 28, 1945. The largest sections of the plane remained lodged in the building, or fell directly to the streets below. However, one engine ripped from its wing and traveled some distance away before landing in Hering's top floor penthouse studio, located in a building near the crash. At the time, newspaper coverage of the accident reported that, although the artist was not in his studio at the time, about $75,000 worth of his work was destroyed.[3]
He died in New York City in 1949.
Legacy and reappraisaledit
Hering's reputation as a sculptor decreased as International Modernism dispensed with architectural, figurative and allegorical work. As with many other such artists Hering's oeuvre is now being reexamined in a more positive light.
The National Sculpture Society gives out the Henry Hering Award for noteworthy collaboration between sculptor and architect.
On July 23, 2021, Cleveland's Major League Baseball franchise announced plans to replace its "Indians" nickname with the "Guardians," taking inspiration from Hering's eight monumental Guardians of Traffic statues on Hope Memorial Bridge.[4][5]
Day and Night, Amtrak Chicago Union Station, Chicago, Illinois, 1925 http://www.thechicagoloop.org/s.usta.figu.00000.html
Defense[7] and Regeneration,[8] on the southern bridgehouses of the DuSable Bridge, Chicago, Illinois, 1928
Pro PatriaIndiana War Memorial, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1929, Walker & Weeks. architects. This male nude was the largest bronze statue to have been cast in America at that time. A lively interest in Hering's work still exists; a version standing 33½" high was auctioned late in 2007 for $9,000.[9]
The Guardians of Traffic sculptures adorning the Hope Memorial Bridge, Cleveland, 1932
Abraham Lincoln, University Park, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1934
Peace, Peace Gardens, Cleveland, Ohio, 1936
Referencesedit
^Newspaper articles around the country appeared on the 17th, a Monday saying he died on Saturday. Also NYC Death Index on Ancestry.
^"Henry Hering". Olympedia. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
^"With the Command - Better Care and Better Understanding". 30 April 2022.
^Bell, Mandy (July 23, 2021). "New for '22: Meet the Cleveland Guardians". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
^Hoynes, Paul (July 23, 2021). "Cleveland Indians choose Guardians as new team name". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
^Walsten, David M. (1989). Henry Hering and the Case of the Missing Maidens. Vol. 60. Retrieved April 17, 2020. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
^"Defense (sculpture)". Smithsonian Art Inventories Catalog. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
^"Regeneration (sculpture)". Smithsonian Art Inventories Catalog. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
^"Henry Hering". Fine Art May 2007. Rago Arts and Auction Center. Archived from the original on 2011-07-15.
General referencesedit
Bach, Ira, editor, Chicago's Famous Buildings, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1980
Johannesen, Eric, A Cleveland Legacy: The Architecture of Walker and Weeks, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, 1999
Kvaran and Lockley, A Guide to Architectural Sculpture in America, unpublished manuscript
National Sculpture Society, Contemporary American Sculpture 1929, National Sculpture Society, New York, NY 1929
Opitz, Glenn B, Editor, Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie NY, 1986