Medium/Discipline: Sculpture
Birthplace: Alsace Lorraine, Germany
Place of Death: Baltimore, Maryland
Maryland Affiliation: Depicts Maryland subjects, Active while in residence
Prominent Theme: sculpture; portraits; figural
Style/Period: Realism
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: White
Biography: Early in Hans Schuler, Sr.'s career, he became the first American sculptor to win a Salon Gold Medal in Paris (1901). Known as the Monument Maker, Schuler graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art's Rinehart School of Sculpture, in Baltimore, Maryland. He taught there, was elected to the board in 1925, and served as the Institute's director from 1925 to 1951. In this role, he met and hired old master-style painter Jacques Maroger to teach at the Institute; Maroger would become highly influential at the school and regionally. Their legacy was carried on by two of their artistic disciples: Hans Sr.'s son, Hans Schuler, Jr., and Maroger's assistant, Ann Didusch Schuler. Hans Jr. and Ann Didusch Schuler founded The Schuler School of Fine Arts in 1959. The School was founded with the mission of promoting the classical realist tradition, and is still in operation today.
Schuler was eminent among sculptors of his generation in Baltimore, along with Edward and Henry Berge (Naylor, p. 15). Schuler's monuments, reliefs, and sculpture portraits remain a part of public buildings, streets, universities, and cemeteries throughout Maryland, adjacent states, and the District of Columbia. A list of Schuler's public art in Baltimore, Md. and Washington, D.C. is as follows:
- Fallsway Fountain, Guilford Avenue and Biddle Street, Baltimore
- Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
- Major General Samuel Smith, Federal Hill Park, Baltimore
- Martin Luther, Hillen Road and 33rd Streets, Baltimore
- Pulaski, Patterson Park, Baltimore
- Sidney Lanier, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
- Untitled, Hampden Elementary School, Baltimore
- James Buchanan, Meridian Hill Park, Washington, D.C.
Caroline and Henry Naylor wrote, "[Schuler's] Sidney Lanier at Hopkins combines a bronze seated figure with a sculpture in the round and also combines a bronze seated figure with a naturalistic rock formation, and is something of a tour de force." (p. 15)
Art-related Employment: sculptor; instructor; Maryland Institute College of Art director, 1925 to 1951
Selected References: Ask Art Hans Schuler Artist Biography: www.askart.com.
Naylor, Henry and Caroline. Public Monuments & Sculpture of Baltimore: An Introduction to the Collection, (Bethesda, Md.: The Writer's Center), 1987. The Schuler School of Fine Arts web site: www.auronet.com/schuler/.
Maryland Institutions Holding Artworks: The Johns Hopkins University (and additional public art sites listed above)
Awards: Salon Gold Medal in Paris (1901)
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