Wilhelm Schimmel
Eagle

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Eagle
Datec. 1875–1890
Made inPennsylvania, United States
MediumWillow and eastern white pine
Dimensions12 × 17 × 9 in. (30.5 × 43.2 × 22.9 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.57.69
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Folk Art Room
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

This spread-wing eagle, with its cross-hatched and faceted feather patterns, is a visual throwback to the fierce heraldic eagles of late medieval and Renaissance Germany. It was made by Wilhelm Schimmel, an itinerant wood-carver active in Cumberland County in the late nineteenth century. His eagles, among his most distinctive products, came in a variety of sizes.

Related examples: Lipman 1948, fig. 141; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont (American Sampler 1987, p. 72, no. 16); a large collection at Winterthur; other examples at MMA and MFA, Boston. Schimmel’s work has been thoroughly discussed by Milton E. Flower (Flower 1943; Flower 1960; Flower 1965, p. 7, no. 3).

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


Provenance[Edith Gregor Halpert (1900–1970), American Folk Art Gallery, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, June 19, 1957; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History"Looking at Sculpture," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, September 15–December 29, 1991.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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scan from file photograph
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