Charles Henry Niehaus was born on January 24, 1855 in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. He was the son of John Conrad and Sophia (Block) Niehaus. His parents were natives of Germany, thrifty, hard-working people, and their son inherited these traits.
Education
Niehaus began his professional studies in the McMicken School of Art in Cincinnati and later went to Munich, where he became a pupil of the Royal Academy and won high honors.
Career
In early youth Niehaus found employment as a wood-carver and stonecutter, and it was while doing this work that his resolution to become a sculptor was formed.
He traveled in Europe as extensively as possible in order to see the works of the great masters. His arrival in Cincinnati coincided approximately with the tragic death of James A. Garfield, and his first commission was for a statue in marble of the martyred President for placement in the Capitol at Washington. This order was given by the State of Ohio, and at the same time a duplicate, in bronze, to be erected in Cincinnati, was secured by private subscription. The young sculptor put into this statue all of "the enthusiasm of ambitious youth, animated by love of the work" and eagerness for fame, which explains why in it he attained, without further apprenticeship, mature expression. He did other works as good; his style was frequently varied; but he never did anything better. The figure of Garfield has dignity, personality, and distinction. It is, furthermore, one of the few oratorical statues which may be said to be silently eloquent. Next came an order from the State of Ohio for a statue of William Allen for Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol, after the completion of which he returned to Europe for further study. Going directly to Rome, he established himself in the Villa Strohl-Fern, adjoining the Villa Borghese, and he remained there some time. It was in Rome, under classical influence, that he modeled the "Caestus" and the "Athlete" with strigil or scraper, both of which were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. When in 1885 Niehaus returned to the United States he did not go back to Cincinnati but settled in New York City, working there, or across the river in New Jersey, until his death at the age of eighty. The list of his works is long and impressive. Indeed, few sculptors have received, and satisfactorily executed, as many public commissions as did Niehaus. Whatever he did was, first of all, sculptural in conception; it was also well designed and firmly modeled. If occasionally it lacked the so-called "loving touch" which creates charm, it was because the search for truth was his absorption rather than the expression of his own personality. He was not an individualist, and his works often reflected his admirations, but he was too honest and sincere ever knowingly to commit plagiarism. There were in his sketch models, almost invariably, inspiration and spontaneity, which faded away to a degree in the enlarged finished work; and his portraits, while good from the standpoint of likeness, were rarely vivid; but even so, Niehaus always upheld, and better than many, the tradition of sound and capable work. What he did has been found to wear well, and that he was a genuinely gifted artist is generally agreed.
In 1900 he did a seated figure of Hahnemann, founder of homeopathy, for erection on Scott Circle in Washington, D. C. This was one of the first monumental memorials erected in the capital to a civilian who had benefited mankind. With its Greek exedra, designed by Israels and Harder, architects, it is an exceptionally engaging work, and so fine is the sketch model that it has been given permanent placement in the Cincinnati Museum of Art. Twelve years later, in 1912, his standing statue of John Paul Jones, executed under commission from the federal government, was erected at the foot of Seventeenth Street in Washington. It, too, has a handsome exedra, designed by Thomas Hastings, and is a valuable contribution both as a memorial and as a civic decoration. In addition to Niehaus's statues of Garfield and Allen in the national Capitol are his full-length figures of John J. Ingalls, Oliver P. Morton, and Zachariah Chandler. The Library of Congress has, in its rotunda, his statues of Gibbon, the historian, and Moses, the lawgiver, the latter boldly modeled, and three charming tympana carved in wood. Especially noteworthy are his Astor memorial doors, Trinity Church, New York, six panels, for one of three pairs of doors, subjectively historical and modeled in high and low relief, the foremost figures almost detached and the others fading into the background, a style employed by Amadeo and other sculptors of the Italian Renaissance. Among his numerous portrait statues are those of William McKinley, Canton, Ohio; Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana; Hooker and Davenport, Connecticut State House, Hartford, Connecticut; Abraham Lincoln, Buffalo, New York; and Lincoln, Farragut, and McKinley, Muskegon, Mich. His bust portraits of J. Q. A. Ward, a fellow sculptor, and Joseph Jefferson, the actor, are, as characterizations, outstanding. Niehaus did but one equestrian statue, that of Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, Memphis, Tennessee, which is, however, reckoned among the best in the United States. Comparatively few of his works are imaginative. Among his best of these is "The Driller, " at Titusville, erected in memory of Edwin L. Drake, who in 1859 sunk the first oil-well in that state. In his memorial to Francis Scott Key, erected at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, he made a partial return to the classical, symbolizing Key's contribution by a figure of Orpheus on a pedestal, ornamented with figures in relief. By this statue Niehaus was represented in the National Sculpture Society's exhibition in New York in 1923, while in the exhibition held under the same auspices in the Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, in 1929, he showed an excellent full-length, standing statue of Henry Clay, now in Statuary Hall at the national Capitol. For the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, he produced "Apotheosis of St. Louis" and for the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, two notable groups. Mention should also be made of his pediment for the state Capitol at Frankfort; Soldiers and Sailors Memorial--"Embarkation and Debarkation"--Hoboken; "Planting the Standard of Democracy, " Newark and Hackensack; and "Triumphant Return, " central group for the Dewey Arch in New York, which was both fine in conception and imbued with calm dignity.
He was a member of the National Sculpture Society and the Architectural League of New York. He became an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1902 and an academician in 1906. He was also a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and other professional organizations. Many of his commissions were obtained through competitions.
Achievements
Connections
Niehaus was twice married: first, January 3, 1888, Letetia Gorman, by whom he had a daughter, Marie; second, August 3, 1900, Regina Armstrong, an art critic.