Edmond Romulus Amateis (27 February 1897;

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, Italy – 1 May 1981;

Clermont, Florida Clermont is a city in Lake County in central Florida, United States, about west of Orlando and southeast of Leesburg. The population was 43,021 in 2020. The city is residential in character and its economy is centered in retail trade, lodging, ...

) was an American sculptor and educator. He is known for garden-figure sculptures, large architectural sculptures for public buildings and portrait busts.

Life and career

Amateis was the son of

Louis Amateis Louis Amateis, American sculptor born in Turin, Italy on December 13, 1855. Studying architecture at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Art. He also studied in Milan and Paris before moving to New York City ...

(1855−1913), a noted sculptor who had immigrated from Italy in 1883 and became founder of the School of Architecture at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...

in Washington D.C. Edmond Amateis received his early education in Washington and took up the study of art at the

Beaux-Arts Institute of Design The Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (BAID, later the National Institute for Architectural Education) was an art and architectural school at 304 East 44th Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan, in New York City.New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, in 1915, which were interrupted during

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by service in the United States Army. Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society 2

While in Europe, he spent four months in Paris at the Académie Julian with François Boucher and

Paul Landowski Paul Maximilien Landowski (1 June 1875 – 31 March 1961) was a French monument sculptor of Polish descent. His best-known work is '' Christ the Redeemer'' in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Biography Landowski was born in Paris, France, of a Polish re ...

as his teachers. When he returned to the United States, he resumed his studies at the Beaux-Arts Institute, combined with work in the studios of Henry Shrady and John Clements Gregory. In 1921 Amateis won the fellowship of the

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects, ...

for the next three years. From 1942 to 1944 he was the fifteenth president of the

National Sculpture Society Founded in 1893, the National Sculpture Society (NSS) was the first organization of professional sculptors formed in the United States. The purpose of the organization was to promote the welfare of American sculptors, although its founding members ...

. In his later years Amateis lived in Florida, where he developed an interest in the breeding of flowers. A variety of rhododendron is named for him.

Selected works

After his return to the United States he was commissioned with a number of important works of architectural sculpture, such as * two aquatic war horses for the

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War Memorial * a pediment and twelve metopes for the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society Building, now the Buffalo History Museum * a relief for the Gannett Building in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

Gannett Building relief image
/ref> * the Great Frieze on the north wall of the Kansas City

Liberty Memorial The National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri was opened in 1926 as the Liberty Memorial. In 2004, it was designated by the United States Congress as the country's official war memorial and museum dedicated to World War ...

finished in 1935 * the Acacia Griffins for the Acacia Life Insurance Company Building * a relief and spandrels for the Department of Labor and Interstate Commerce Building, Washington, D.C. * bronze busts of 15

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experts plus President

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and Basil O'Connor for the

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, commissioned in 1956 and dedicated in 1958 * a relief for the Kerckhoff Mausoleum, Los Angeles, and a memorial to William M. Davidson at Pittsburgh. Amateis also designed many fountain and garden figures and also modeled numerous portrait busts and small bronzes.

Awards

In 1929 Summer won the Avery Prize given by the Architectural League, and in 1933, Circe the McClees Prize at the

Pennsylvania Academy The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and Private university, private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

. He was for a time Associate in Sculpture at Columbia University. He was also a member of the

and the Architectural League. He was elected as an Associate member of the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

in 1936, and made a full member in 1942.

Gallery

File:MellonParkFountain.jpg, The fountain in Mellon Park,

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, 1927 File:NiehausBuffPed1.jpg, The left... File:NiehausBuffPed2.jpg, center... File:NiehausBuffPed3.jpg, and right sections of the pediment of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society Building in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

File:NixFedBldgPhilaMailBas1.jpg, '' Mail Delivery East'', one of four bas-relief sculptures on the Robert N. C. Nix, Sr., Federal Building in

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, 1937

References

Notes Further reading *

External links

Edmond R. Amateis papers, 1926-1977
from the Smithsonian

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

Short biography from a Brookgreen Gardens brochure, ''Sculpture by Edmond Amateis'', copyright 1937
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amateis, Edmond 1897 births 1981 deaths Artists from Washington, D.C. Sculptors from Florida Italian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors National Sculpture Society members Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (New York City) alumni Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters