Marie Herndl Explained

Marie Herndl
Other Names:Maria Herndl
Birth Date:22 June 1860
Birth Place:Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria
Death Place:Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Resting Place:Holy Cross Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Resting Place Coordinates:Block: 1, Section: E, Lot: 90, Grave: 1
Alma Mater:Royal Institute of Art
Known For:Stained glass
Notable Works:"Queen of the Elves"
Awards:1893 Bronze and 1904 Silver Medal (World's Fair)

Marie (Maria) Herndl (22 June 1860  – 14 May 1912) was a 19th-century German artist who worked with stained glass. She earned a bronze medal at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 for her controversial work entitled "Queen of the Elves". Herndl was arrested by the United States Secret Service in 1904 for trying to approach President Theodore Roosevelt about her art.

Early life

Herndl was born 22 June 1860,[1] [2] and raised in Munich. Her parents were both art teachers. She went to the Royal Institute of Art and studied under Franz Xaver Zettler. She did an apprenticeship with the Gabriel Meyer Studio and one of her works entitled "Brunhilde at Worms" was sold to owners of a Bavarian castle.[3]

Career

After moving to America she spent time in New York working for stained-glass art masters John LaFarge and Louis C. Tiffany.For the 1893 world's fair she created a 6feetx9feetft (xft) stained-glass work called "Queen of the Elves", it also came to be called "The Fairy Queen". The work earned her a bronze medal.[4] After the fair it was displayed at the Field House in Chicago.[5]

There was some controversy surrounding the "Queen of the Elves" stained-glass exhibit. The central figures in the piece are nude, and only their lower parts are minimally covered. Candace Wheeler told Herndl to cover at least the body of the central figure in the stained-glass portrait from "knees to the throat",[5] but she refused. The organizers of the World's Fair moved her work to the African American women's exhibit and turned the glass portrait wrong side out.[6] Herndl convinced the exhibitors at the Electric building to have her work exhibited there. It was the most popular building at the fair, and her work was in the same building as Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla. Because of the location her art was seen by more people and it won several prizes. However the work has been controversial ever since, and it has spent most of its time hidden away.

In 1899 she moved to Milwaukee and began working on commission. In 1903 one of her stained-glass pieces entitled the "Hans Christian Andersen window" was given to the Milwaukee Public Museum by a group of donors who purchased the work.[7] In 1911 Patrick Cudahy commissioned eleven pieces.

In 1904 she exhibited her works at the St. Louis World's Fair. One of her works entitled "George Washington" earned a silver medal. She wanted the government to purchase and display her George Washington piece. For years she wrote letters pleading with the US Government to purchase the window. Herndl was so persistent that in 1904 she tried to force her way into a home to approach President Theodore Roosevelt. When stopped, she spoke in broken English and would not take direction from the Secret Service; they arrested her. She wanted to know if the President would be viewing her George Washington portrait. She was later released after the Secret Service determined that she was not a threat.[8]

The government finally agreed to purchase the "George Washington" stained glass. The 59th Congress 2nd session, in Report no. 8158, approved the purchase of the George Washington window on 2 March 1907, for $2000 or less.[9] [10] The window was on loan to the Smithsonian until 1962, and it eventually it came to rest in a US Senate dining room.[11] [12]

Herndl died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 14 May 1912.[13]

Notable works

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Fairman . Charles E. . Works of Art in the United States Capitol Building: Including Biographies of the Artists . 1913 . Government Printing Office . Washington, D.C. . 36–37 .
  2. Book: Zaitzevsky, Cynthia. Long Island Landscapes and the Women who Designed Them. 2009. W. W. Norton & Company. 978-0-393-73124-8. en. 296. 2 January 2022. 26 February 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220226152047/https://books.google.com/books?id=pe7upwZyvSsC&dq=%22herndl%22+%221860%22&pg=PA296. live.
  3. News: Art Artists . 18 December 2021 . The Buffalo Times . 26 May 1901 . 18 December 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211218234742/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90788688/art-back/ . live .
  4. Book: Merrill . Peter C. . German Immigrant Artists in America: A Biographical Dictionary . 1997 . The Scarecrow Press Inc. . Lanham, Maryland . 99 . 9780810832664 . 18 December 2021 . 26 February 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220226152101/https://www.google.com/books/edition/German_Immigrant_Artists_in_America/9jSH20VIOpsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Marie+Herndl&pg=PA99&printsec=frontcover . live .
  5. News: Jacobson . Brian . The forgotten stained glass masterwork of Marie Herndl . 18 December 2021 . On Milwaukee . 6 March 2016 . 18 December 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211218224050/https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/marieherndl . live .
  6. Book: Allen. Jasmine. Windows for the world : nineteenth-century stained glass and the international exhibitions, 1851-1900. 2018. Manchester University Press. 978-1526114723. Manchester.
  7. Book: Twnety-Sixth Annual Report of the Milwaukee Public Library. 1 October 1903. Hender-Bamford-Crandell Co. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 7. 18 December 2021. 26 February 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220226152047/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Annual_Report/Lv1EAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Marie+Herndl&pg=PA18-IA13&printsec=frontcover. live.
  8. News: Over-Ambitious Artist Placed Under Arrest . 18 December 2021 . The Des Moines Register . 29 November 1904 . 18 December 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211218234309/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90788423/arrested/ . live .
  9. Book: United States Congressional Serial Set Volume 5065 . 1907 . U.S. Government Printing Office . Washington D.C. . 18 December 2021 . 26 February 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220226152047/https://www.google.com/books/edition/United_States_Congressional_Serial_Set/hg9HAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 . live .
  10. Book: Wisconsin at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 . 1904 . Cantewell Printing Co. . Madison, Wisconsin . 68 . 18 December 2021 . 26 February 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220226152048/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Wisconsin_at_the_Louisiana_Purchase_Expo/ZjvTAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Marie+Herndl&pg=PA68&printsec=frontcover . live .
  11. Book: Kloss . William . Skvarla . Diane K. . United States Senate catalogue of fine art . 2002 . U.S. G.P.O . Washington, D.C. . 978-0160511721 . 18 December 2021 . 26 February 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220226152048/https://www.google.com/books/edition/United_States_Senate_Catalogue_of_Fine_A/1EsbkN7nVsYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Marie+Herndl&pg=PA406&printsec=frontcover . live .
  12. News: People Talked About. Leslie's Weekly. 99 . 29 December 1904 . 609 .
  13. News: 15 May 1912. Miss Marie Herndl, Painter, Passes Away in Milwaukee. Buffalo Morning Express and Illustrated Buffalo Express. 18 December 2021. 18 December 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211218235238/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90788907/death/. live.
  14. Web site: Hans Christian Andersen Window . Milwaukee Public library . 18 December 2021 . 29 December 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211229052631/https://www.mpl.org/content/pdfs/BettyBrinn_AndersonWindow.pdf . live .

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