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Adolph Alexander Weinman was a German-born American sculptor and architectural sculptor.
Born in Durmersheim, near Karlsruhe, Germany, Weinman arrived in the United States at the age of 14. At the age of 15, he attended evening classes at Cooper Union and later studied at the Art Students League of New York with sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Philip Martiny. He later served as an assistant to Charles Niehaus, Olin Warner, and Daniel Chester French. Although Weinman is now best remembered as a medallist, when he once was introduced as such he vehemently denied being one and said that he was an architectural sculptor. His steadiest income was derived from the sale of small bronze reproductions of his larger works, such as Descending Night, originally commissioned for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915.
In numismatic circles, Weinman is best known as the designer of the Mercury Dime (now used on the American Palladium Eagle) and the Walking Liberty half dollar - now used as the obverse of the American Silver Eagle. |
