Bruno Zimm (artist)

Bruno Louis Zimm (December 29, 1867 - November 21, 1943) was an American sculptor. He created a variety of works: fountains, memorials, freestanding sculptures, and architectural sculptures.

Women's Health Protective Association drinking fountain with bas-relief by Zimm, Riverside Drive and 116th Street, NYC, 1909

Biography

He was born in New York City, the son of Louis and Olga Shoreck Zimm.[1]

At age 13, Zimm began study at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Schools,[2] where J.Q.A. Ward was among his instructors.[3] He studied privately for five years under Karl Bitter,[2] for a year under Augustus Saint-Gaudens at the Art Students League of New York, then worked as a studio assistant to Saint-Gaudens.[1] Zimm's early work included architectural sculpture for the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, and an angel figure for Trinity Church Cemetery.[2] He studied further in Paris,[1] where he received an 1899 commission from the U.S. Government to create two sculpture groups for the upcoming Exposition Universelle (1900).[2]

In the [American] section of "Varied Industries," Mr. Bruno Louis Zimm of New York has just finished the first of the two sculpture groups that are to flank its entrance. It is a very graceful and dignified composition representing the art of Ceramics—a female figure engaged in the decoration of a vase, while a youth holds before her a bunch of freshly culled leaves. The sentiment is, that all true art is inspired by nature.[4]

Following his return to New York City, Zimm created a statue of General Sherman, a sculpture group called Progress, and a number of bas-relief panels and portrait busts.[2]

Zimm was commissioned to create a statue of Sacagawea for the 1904 World's Fair. His research into her turned up new evidence: "A sculptor, Mr. Bruno Zimm, seeking a model for a statue of Sacagawea that was later erected at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, discovered a record of the pilot-woman's death in 1884 (when ninety-five years old) on the Shoshone Reservation, Wyoming, and her wind-swept grave."[5] Zimm also created the colossal Allegorical Figure of North Dakota for the Fair, one of fourteen seated sculptures representing the U.S. states that had been part of the Louisiana Purchase. In addition, he created architectural sculptures for some of the buildings.

Awards and honors

Zimm was awarded a Silver Medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for his sculpture groups, The Art of Metalwork and The Art of Ceramics.[1] He exhibited at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri; and the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California.[1] He was elected to membership in the National Sculpture Society in year.[1]

Personal

In 1910 Zimm moved full-time to the Byrdcliffe Colony in Woodstock, New York.[6] In 1919 he married his second wife, Louise Seymour Hasbrouck.[1] Their son Bruno Hasbrouck Zimm (1920-2005) became a well known chemist.

Zimm and his wife purchased a farm outside Woodstock during the 1930s. It featured an 1840s stone farmhouse, that they renovated and expanded in an Arts and Crafts style. Zimm's two-story studio features rafter tails carved into masks, and interior carving, including one plaque reading: "Rose Plot, Fringed Pool, Fern'd Grot, the veriest school of Peace."[7]

Selected works
Sakakawea (1904), World's Columbian Exposition, St. Louis, MO
  • North Dakota (1904), St. Louis World's Fair
  • Slocum Memorial Fountain (1908), NYC
  • New York State Monument (1910), White Plains, NY (foreground, right)
  • The Struggle for the Beautiful panel (1915), Rotunda, San Francisco, CA

References
  1. Who's Who in New York City and State, Volume 8 (New York: L. R. Hamersly Company, 1924), p. 1414.
  2. "Two Statues of Birdwoman," Louis and Clark Journal, vol. 1, no. 6 (June 1904), (Portland, Oregon: Louis and Clark Publishing Company), pp. 18-19.
  3. Opitz, Glenn B, Editor, Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1986, p. 1072.
  4. "Paris: Notes about the Exposition," Collier's Weekly, New York, vol. 24, no. 24 (March 17, 1900), p. 6.
  5. Wood, Ruth Kedzie (1 May 1919). "The Lewis and Clark Expedition". Mentor Association, Incorporated. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  6. "Bruno Zimm papers". Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  7. Timothy Malcolm, "Land of Enchantment," Upstate House, Fall 2016.
  8. Eric Denker, In Pursuit of the Butterfly: Portraits of James McNeill Whistler (Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery, 1995), p. 153.
  9. Slocum Memorial Fountain from SIRIS.
  10. Women's Health Protective Association Fountain from SIRIS.
  11. New York State Monument from SIRIS.
  12. Suzanne Turner and Joanne Seale Wilson, Houston's Silent Garden: Glenwood Cemetery, 1871-2009 (Texas A. & M. University Press, 2010, pp. 191-192.
  13. Murdock Frieze from Wichita Carnegie Library.
  14. The Clark Mansion from YouTube.
  15. National Sculpture Society, Exhibition of American Sculpture Catalogue (New York, The National Sculpture Society, 1923), p. 348.
  16. About Us – Building, from St. Clement's Church.
  17. Photo of Zimm posing with his Robert E. Lee bust from Getty Museum.
  18. The West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, Issue 7 (West Tennessee Historical Society, 1953), p. 92.
  19. Meet Mr. Jefferson and General Lee from Marion Military Institute Archives.
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