August Gaul (; October 22, 1869 – October 18, 1922) was a German

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and

expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

artist, born in

Großauheim Großauheim (13,369 inhabitants, without Wolfgang 11,669) is the largest district of Hanau, Hesse, Germany, on the north bank of the Main. It was first mentioned in 806 under the name "Ewichheim". It was a farming village until the end of the 19t ...

(now part of

Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...

). August Gaul was a founding member of the

Berlin Secession The Berlin Secession was an art movement established in Germany on May 2, 1898. Formed in reaction to the Association of Berlin Artists, and the restrictions on contemporary art imposed by Kaiser Wilhelm II, 65 artists "seceded," demonstrating ag ...

. On close terms with art dealers like

Bruno Bruno may refer to: People and fictional characters *Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880) * Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne, ...

and

Paul Cassirer Paul Cassirer (21 February 1871, in Görlitz – 7 January 1926, in Berlin) was a German art dealer and editor who played a significant role in the promotion of the work of artists of the Berlin Secession and of French Impressionists and Post-Im ...

, he became a leading figure in the Berlin art scene before World War I. Gaul died of cancer in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

in 1922.

Works of Art

Produced in Frankfurt, Germany for the 1904

Louisiana Purchase Exposition The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an World's fair, international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds tota ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, August Gaul's "Durana" bronze eagle features hundreds of hand-forged bronze feathers and was the centerpiece of one of the many German exhibits at the fair. When the fair closed the statue weighing 2,500 pounds was purchased by

John Wanamaker John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838December 12, 1922) was an American merchant and religious, civic and political figure, considered by some to be a proponent of advertising and a "pioneer in marketing". He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a ...

of Philadelphia for $10,000. The eagle was re-installed centrally in the Grand Court of what has become known as America's first department store,

Wanamaker's John Wanamaker Department Store was one of the first department stores in the United States. Founded by John Wanamaker in Philadelphia, it was influential in the development of the retail industry including as the first store to use price tags. ...

. The Eagle quickly became the store's unofficial mascot and grew in iconic popular social context with the Philadelphian and suburban

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

"Meet me at the Eagle". When suburban branches of John Wanamaker's department stores opened in the 1950s and ’60s, the company installed various eagle statues in each one. The eagle sculpture still resides at the same location under ownership of

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

and is an integral element of this store becoming the flagship within the chain.

References

* ''Der Tierbildhauer August Gaul'', ed. Ursel Berger. Nicolai, Berlin 1999

External links

* Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) – 69 drawings
Collection August Gaul
1869 births 1922 deaths Modern sculptors Deaths from cancer in Germany 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists 19th-century German sculptors German male sculptors 19th-century German male artists {{Germany-sculptor-stub