Georg John Lober (November 7, 1891 – December 14, 1961) was an American

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 ...

best known for his 1959 statue of composer

George M. Cohan George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer. Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudev ...

situated in

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

, a 1949 sculpture of statesman

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

, and a bronze sculpture of Danish writer

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

located in

Central Park, Manhattan Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

. He served for nearly two decades as executive secretary for the New York City Municipal Art Commission, from 1943 to 1960.

Background

Born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, in 1892, Lober moved to Keyport, New Jersey, as a teenager. Lober studied sculpture at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design and at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

. He apprenticed to sculptor

Gutzon Borglum John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Mountain in Georg ...

, who is credited with the statesmen at Mount Rushmore.

Career

Lober's first major works were

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

s of

Robert Fulton Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 24, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the (also known as ''Clermont''). In 1807, that steamboat ...

, inventor of the steamship, and explorer

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States. In 1607 and 160 ...

in 1909. A bronze statue of

Eve Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...

that he created for the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchas ...

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the ...

was destroyed by vandals. A 1949 sculpture of Revolutionary War figure

is located in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

's Burnham Park. Hans Christian Andersen, by Georg John Lober

Lober was appointed to the New York City Municipal Art Commission in 1942; it was responsible for supervising the artistic quality of all city matters. He served as its executive secretary from 1943 to 1960. In 1946 he and the Commission were tasked by

Mayor of New York City The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...

William O'Dwyer to restore portraits in

New York City Hall New York City Hall is the Government of New York City, seat of New York City government, located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center, Manhattan, Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, Park R ...

that had deteriorated severely. A June 1950 editorial in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' thanked Lober and the Art Commission, saying that they "deserve a pat on the back for their careful and painstaking work" in preserving the city's heritage for future generations.Staff
"GEORG J. LOBER, 69, SCULPTOR, IS DEAD; Ex-Head of Art Commission Here--Did Cohan Statue"
''

'', December 15, 1961. Accessed October 7, 2008. Lober created an seated figure of

on a granite bench for

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

, which was installed in 1956. It was cast in bronze at

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...

Modern Art Foundry The Modern Art Foundry is an historic foundry in Astoria, Queens, New York, founded in 1932 by John Spring. His descendants continue to operate the business in what used to be the carriage house of the Steinway Mansion. Modern Art Foundry special ...

. The statue was designed to accompany an outdoor center for story-telling, and was placed on a 40-foot square stone platform surrounded by benches, trees and shrubs. The $75,000 cost of the monument was covered in part by contributions from Danish and American schoolchildren. Lober returned to the theme with his 1955 medal commemorating the 150th anniversary of Anderson's birth, created for the

Society of Medalists The Society of Medalists was established in 1930 in the United States to encourage the medallic work of superior sculptors, and to make their creations available to the public. The Society of Medalists was the longest running art medal collector's ...

. Composer

Oscar Hammerstein II Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II (; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) director in the musical theater for almost 40 years. He won eight Ton ...

was the chairman of a committee that selected Lober and architect Otto F. Langmann to develop a statue of composer, playwright, and actor

. It was installed in Father Duffy Square on Broadway at the northern end of

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

. The statue was formally unveiled and dedicated on September 11, 1959, by Mayor

Robert F. Wagner Robert Ferdinand Wagner I (June 8, 1877May 4, 1953) was an American politician. He was a Democratic U.S. Senator from New York from 1927 to 1949. Born in Prussia, Wagner migrated with his family to the United States in 1885. After graduating ...

.George M. Cohan Statue in Duffy Square

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...

. Accessed October 7, 2008.

Denmark

In 1912, Lober created an emblem for the Rebild National Park (Danish: ''Rebild Bakker''] in Rebild Municipality, Rebild,

Region Nordjylland The North Jutland Region ( da, Region Nordjylland), or in some official sources, the North Denmark Region, is an administrative region of Denmark established on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish municipal reform, which abolished the tra ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. He also made a bronze relief of United States President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

that was installed in Rebild National Park. Lober's bronze portrait of native son

is in the Odense Museum. Denmark recognized Lober in 1950 with an appointment as a Knight of the

Order of the Dannebrog The Order of the Dannebrog ( da, Dannebrogordenen) is a Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single class known a ...

Personal life

Lober lived at 33 West 67th Street in Manhattan. He died on December 14, 1961, and was interred in St. Joseph's Cemetery in Keyport.Jeandron, Jack
"Keyport"
Arcadia Publishing, 2003, , via

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

, p. 138. Accessed October 7, 2008.

References

External links

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Georg John Lober papers.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lober, Georg J. 1890s births 1961 deaths Artists from Chicago People from Keyport, New Jersey Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors Sculptors from Illinois People from the Upper West Side