Albert Laessle (March 28, 1877 – September 4, 1954) was an American sculptor and educator. He taught at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.animalier An animalier (, ) is an artist, mainly from the 19th century, who specializes in, or is known for, skill in the realistic portrayal of animals. "Animal painter" is the more general term for earlier artists. Although the work may be in any genre ...

. He won the 1918

Widener Gold Medal The George D. Widener Memorial Gold Medal was a prestigious sculpture prize awarded by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1913 to 1968. Established in 1912, it recognized the "most meritorious work of Sculpture modeled by an American cit ...

Life, education and career

Albert Laessle was born on March 28, 1877, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents immigrated to the United States from

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

, Germany. Laessle had an older brother, Henry who was supportive of his artistic ambitions, whereas his parents were not. Laessle studied art at several institutions:

Spring Garden Institute Spring Garden College—founded in 1851 as the Spring Garden Institute—was a private technical college in the Spring Garden section of Philadelphia. Its building at 523-25 North Broad Street (demolished) was designed by architect Steph ...

in 1894; Drexel Institute (now

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...

) 1894-1895, where he studied under

Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artists. For the length ...

; and the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Thomas Anshutz Thomas Pollock Anshutz (October 5, 1851 – June 16, 1912) was an American painter and teacher. Known for his portraiture and genre scenes, Anshutz was a co-founder of The Darby School. One of Thomas Eakins's most prominent students, he succeede ...

and

Charles Grafly Charles Allan Grafly, Jr. (December 3, 1862May 5, 1929) was an American sculptor, and teacher. Instructor of Sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for 37 years, his students included Paul Manship, Albin Polasek, and Walker Hanc ...

. He spent three years, from 1904 to 1907 in Paris working with Michel Beguine. In 1907, he returned to Philadelphia and worked in Grafly's studio. In 1901, he was a contender for a gold medal from the Philadelphia Club for his famous plaster work ''Turtle and Crab'', the turtle was so accurately sculpted, critics alleged it was cast. Laessle did not address the accusations which cost him the medal, but rather retaliated by producing another sculpture of a turtle out of wax which can not be cast, proving he did not cast the first work. In 1910, he won a medal at the Buenos Aires International Exposition and in 1915, he won a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. In 1916, he won first place in the ''Americanization Through Art'' exhibition in Philadelphia.

Works

Laessle's sculptures can be found at the Carnegie Institute, the

Peabody Institute The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In Philadelphia's

Rittenhouse Square Rittenhouse Square is a neighborhood, including a public park, in Center City Philadelphia. The park is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas Holme during the late 17th century. The neighborho ...

is his famous bronze ''Billy'' (1914) – a sculpture of a goat that is known to be a favorite of children who love to sit on it – which was given to the City of Philadelphia by Eli Kirk Price II through the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art). At the

Philadelphia Zoo The Philadelphia Zoo, located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, is the first true zoo in the United States. It was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859, but its openin ...

is his group of bronze ''Penguins'' (1917), which was purchased by the Fairmount Park Art Association and installed at the entrance to the zoo's Bird House. Laessle's studio was close to the Philadelphia Zoo, which allowed him easy access to animal models. Laessle collaborated with Grafly on the ''Major General

Galusha Pennypacker Uriah Galusha Pennypacker (June 1, 1841/1844 – October 1, 1916) was a Union general during the American Civil War. He may be the youngest person to hold the rank of brigadier general in the US Army; at the age of 20, he remains the only general ...

Memorial'' for Philadelphia's Logan Circle. Pennypacker had been the youngest Union general in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Grafly's concept was to depict Pennypacker as a bare-chested Roman general astride a chariot-like cannon, and flanked by tigers. Grafly died in 1929, and Laessle completed the memorial, based on Grafly's designs, in 1934. From 1919 until 1939, Laessle was an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy. He retired due to a heart condition. In 1951, Laessle won the J. Sanford Saltus Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Art of the Medal from the

American Numismatic Society The American Numismatic Society (ANS) is a New York City-based organization dedicated to the study of coins, money, medals, tokens, and related objects. Founded in 1858, it is the only American museum devoted exclusively to their preservation ...

. Among the medals he designed and sculpted during his long career was the Gold Medal of Award for the Sesquicentennial International Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1926. He sculpted ''America-Abundance'', the tenth issue of 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 ...

in 1934. In 1927 he was elected into 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 ...

as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1932. Sesquicentennial Exposition Gold Medal of Award 1926

File:Penguins Philly Zoo.JPG, "Bronze Penguins" in the

, 2012. Historical Marker Minquas Path Beaver Sculpture.jpg, Beaver sculpture in

Rose Valley, Pennsylvania Rose Valley is a small, historic borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its area is , and the population was 913 at the 2010 census. The area was settled by Quaker farmers in 1682, and later water mills along Ridley Creek drove ...

File:WLA amart Bronze turkey.jpg, Turkey (bronze, ca. 1911)

Personal life

Laessle and his wife Mary had two sons, Dr. Albert Middleton Laessle and Paul Laessle (1908–1988), who was also an artist. Mary died of a stroke in 1944. He later married Albertine C. De Bempt.

Death

Laessle died in his home in Miami, Florida, on September 4, 1954. His papers are held at the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laessle, Albert 1877 births 1954 deaths Drexel University alumni Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts faculty Sculptors from Pennsylvania 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors National Sculpture Society members Students of Thomas Eakins Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters