Edward Maene
Edward Maene (21 April 1852, Bruges, Belgium – 4 December 1931, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a Belgian-American architectural sculptor, woodcarver and cabinetmaker.
Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was a master carver in wood and stone, and executed designs by architects such as Wilson Eyre, Willis G. Hale, Cope and Stewardson, William Lightfoot Price, Horace Wells Sellers, and Milton B. Medary.
Maene's choir stalls and reredos for the Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, have been described as "the finest examples of hand carved wood in this country.
[9]: 62 For the Charles Lang Freer House (1892), in Detroit, Michigan, Maene modeled in clay Eyre's free-form chandeliers of dangling vines, the whimsical front doorbell surround, and other detail work, all later cast in bronze.
[20] Frank Miles Day won the 1888 architectural competition to design the Art Club of Philadelphia, at 220 South Broad Street.
[21] Cope and Stewardson designed, and Maene carved, the rood screen (1894) for St. Luke's Episcopal Church, in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.
"[24] Charles Custis Harrison became University of Pennsylvania provost in 1894, and immediately removed Frank Furness as unofficial campus architect, replacing him with the young firm of Cope and Stewardson.
[30] The June 1894 issue of The Architectural Review published photographs of the newly-completed "Woodmont," and Maene placed an advertisement promoting his work: The carved work in Stone and Wood illustrated in this issue of THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW, from the house of Alan Wood, Jr., Esq., of Philadelphia, was all done by E. Maene.Other work of the same character has been executed from the designs of Messrs. W. L. Price, Wilson Eyre, Jr., Frank Miles Day & Bro., Cope & Stewardson, Willis G. Hale, Wilson Brothers & Co., and others, including the University Club, Philadelphia Art Club, the Rood-screen in St. Luke's Church, and many of the finest private residences in and about Philadelphia.
[31] In 1902, Price hired Maene's nephew John to run the Rose Valley furniture shop, which manufactured pieces designed by the architect.
[31] William Welsh Harrison, heir to a sugar-refining fortune (and brother of the University of Pennsylvania provost), commissioned an elaborate Gothic Revival cabinet to house his First Folio of Shakespeare plays.
"[33] Warren Powers Laird, director of the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture, described the Harrison Shakespeare Folio Cabinet as "the finest piece of furniture ever made in this country.
[32] Architect Horace Wells Sellers and Maene collaborated on multiple projects for St. Clement's Episcopal Church, at 20th and Cherry Streets, Philadelphia.
[39] Architect Milton Bennett Medary designed the Washington Memorial Chapel (1908–20), built on the site of the Continental Army's 1777-78 encampment at Valley Forge.
Executing Medary's designs, Maene created and carved the oak pews, choir stalls, reredos, and other church furniture.
[42] The project was (patronizingly) celebrated as a harmonious collaboration among immigrant artists—"iron work by Samuel Yellin from Poland; wood-carving by Edouard Maene from Belgium; stained glass by Nicola D'Ascenzo from Italy.
Medary designed, and Maene created and carved, church furniture for the St. Andrew's Chapel (1926), of the Philadelphia Divinity School, at 42nd and Locust Streets.
[45] Maene executed its reredos, including a white marble high-relief tableau of The Last Supper (after Michelangelo) over the altar, carved by August Zeller.
[46] Architect Edgar V. Seeler designed a new building for The Evening Bulletin, at the northeast corner of Juniper and Filbert Streets, Philadelphia, 1906-08.
[47] The façade carving by Maene's shop featured the newspaper's logo: a globe with wings, in high relief over the main entrance.
Maene modeled a portrait medallion of Pauline Elizabeth Henry (1907), for the Memorial Church of St. Luke the Beloved Physician in Bustleton, Philadelphia.
[50] The oak rood screen features a large Crucifix, flanked by separate figures of Mary and St. John, all carved by Maene.
Above the altar, the centerpiece of the reredos is a high relief sculpture of "Christ blessing, vested as a priest and surrounded by adoring angels.
[53] The Given Memorial rood screen (1922), at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Columbia, Pennsylvania, was "designed by Fowler, Seaman & Company, ecclesiastical architects, and the work wrought by E. Maene, Italian [sic] wood sculptor.
"[54] Edward Maene's December 5, 1931 obituary in The Philadelphia Inquirer listed work on the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
[55] The museum was a joint commission shared by Wilson Eyre, Cope and Stewardson, and Frank Miles Day, and was completed in sections between 1899 and 1929.
239 Griscom Street, between Fourth and Fifth, Spruce and Pine.—The demand for decorations in architecture in this country is a growing one; and it is well represented in this city by Mr. E. Maene, whose office and works are at No.
He employs from twenty to twenty-five assistants, occupies a two story building 100x40 feet in dimensions, and executes designs for ornamental and statuary work of all kinds.
Following the 1906 closure of the Rose Valley furniture shop, nephew John J. Maene taught wood carving and modeling in clay at the Drexel Institute.
[60] Edward Maene, sculptor of many church altars and stone figures in this city, died suddenly of a heart attack in his home, 9626 Banes street, Bustleton, last night.
