Emanuel Otto Hahn (30 May 1881 – 14 February 1957) was a German-born Canadian

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and

coin A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...

designer. He taught and later married Elizabeth Wyn Wood. He co-founded and was the first president of the Sculptors' Society of Canada.

Biography

Education and training

Hahn was born in

Reutlingen Reutlingen (; ) is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous Reutlingen (district), district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it had an estimated population of 116,456. Reutlingen has a Reutlingen University, univ ...

(today a part of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

) and moved to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in 1888 with his family. He studied modelling and commercial design at the Toronto Technical School and Ontario College of Art as well as

Industrial Design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

from 1899 to 1903. In 1901, he was hired by the McIntosh Marble and Granite Company where he created the bronze reliefs on various monuments. Hahn then went on to study in Stuttgart, Germany in 1903, he pursued art and design at the local school of art and design and the Polytechnical School, and briefly apprenticed in the studio of a sculptor teaching at the academy. From 1908 to 1912 Hahn was a studio assistant to sculptor Walter Seymour Allward, helping in the construction of Allward's South African War Memorial in Toronto, the Alexander Graham Bell Telephone Memorial in

Brantford Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully indep ...

Ontario, and the Baldwin-Lafontaine Monument on

Parliament Hill Parliament Hill (), colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern bank of the Ottawa River that houses the Parliament of Canada in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. It accommodates a suite of Gothic revival buildings whose ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

. In 1912 he was hired as a modeling instructor at the Ontario College of Art, ultimately heading the sculpture department until his retirement in 1951. He was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Personal life

Hahn married his former student Elizabeth Wyn Wood in 1926. The couple had one daughter and lived in Toronto at 159 Glen Road. and died in Toronto in 1957.

Career and official commissions

Image:AdamBeck-statue Toronto.jpg, Emanuel Hahn's Sir Adam Beck Memorial (1934) on University Avenue at Queen Street West in

File:Ned Hanlan statue on the Toronto Islands.jpg, Emanuel Hahn's monument to Ned Hanlan (1926) on the

Toronto Islands The Toronto Islands are a chain of 15 small islands in Lake Ontario, south of mainland Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the only group of islands in the western part of Lake Ontario, the Toronto Islands are located just offshore from the ...

File:Elizabeth II official Canadian portrait.jpg, Emanuel Hahn's design for Canadian stamps issued in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II File:Robert Burns Monument 1902.jpg, Emanuel Hahn's

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

monument (1902) in

Allan Gardens Allan Gardens is a Conservatory (greenhouse), conservatory and urban park located in the Garden District, Toronto, Garden District of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The property includes a playground, off-leash dog park, and a conservatory with six gr ...

, Toronto Image:Sam Lount bas relief.jpg, Emanuel Hahn's Memorial to Samuel Lount (1938) at Mackenzie House, Toronto File:Alexander Graham Bell Brantford Monument 0.98.jpg, Bell Telephone Memorial,

Ontario, a monument Hahn worked on with W.S. Allward, unveiled 24 October 1917 File:The Seventh Report on Grievances.jpg, Emanuel Hahn's "Mackenzie Panels" (1938) in the garden of Mackenzie House, Toronto File:Saint-Lambert Cenotaph 2014.jpg, The Saint-Lambert, Quebec Cenotaph by Emanuel Hahn, inaugurated on July 9, 1922, by General Sir Arthur Currie * In 1916, a monument designed by Salvation Army Major Gideon Miller, and sculpted by Emanuel Hahn was dedicated to Salvationists who died in the sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland 29 May 1914, was unveiled. Every year, the church holds a special service of remembrance at the memorial in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto on the Sunday closest to 29 May. * Hahn's statue of a grieving soldier for the War Memorial, Westville, Nova Scotia was replicated for several other monuments, including the cenotaph in Gaspé, Quebec. After the First World War Hahn gained fame for his war memorial designs as communities sought to honour their veterans with cenotaphs and memorial sculptures. He designed a monument on the theme of a realistic soldier figure "going over the top" in Saint-Lambert, Quebec and a meditating figure of Tommy in his Greatcoat in Lindsay, Ontario. Hahn's winning proposal for the city of Winnipeg's war memorial caused a national controversy when the sculptor's German ancestry was revealed in 1925. Hahn was forced to relinquish the commission, although he was able to keep the prize money. Controversy erupted again when the competition was reopened and his wife Elizabeth Wyn Wood won the contract for the memorial. Critics condemned Wood for using her maiden name in the competition and accused her of copying her husband's design. She was also forced to withdraw from the contract and the memorial was awarded to the third-place winner. Hahn's career was not significantly harmed, however, since he received wide press coverage, some of which condemned the city of Winnipeg because Hahn was a naturalized Canadian citizen. The following year he was awarded the contract for the Edward Hanlan monument (1926), erected on the

Canadian National Exhibition The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), also known as The Exhibition or The Ex, is an annual fair that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the third Friday of August leading up to and including Labour Day (Canada), ...

grounds, and moved to the

in 2004. In 1929 he won the competition for a memorial to Sir Adam Beck, his most important and largest monumental project, unveiled in 1934 on University Avenue, Toronto. Hahn was a member of The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto and served as the first President of the Sculptors' Society of Canada, which he established with Frances Loring, Florence Wyle and Elizabeth Wyn Wood in 1928. Membership in the sculptors' society permitted Hahn to exhibit smaller sculptures independently of museums and galleries. The Ontario Heritage Foundation plaque for the South African War Memorial (Toronto) erroneously states that Walter Seymour Allward studied under Emanuel Hahn, when in fact it was the contrary. James Saull, who constructed the Oak Bay, British Columbia Cenotaph in 1948, studied under Emanuel Hahn. Hahn's last work is likely the Robert H. Saunders Memorial, a bas relief marker located on University Avenue south of College Street in 1957.

Coin design

Among the coins of Canada, Hahn designed the Voyageur Dollar, which depicts a fur-trapper ('' coureur de bois'') from the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

and a

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

man in a canoe with the Northern Lights in the background; the

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

racing schooner '' Bluenose'' on the 10¢ coin; the caribou head on the 25¢ coin; and the Canadian Parliament Buildings reverse of the 1939 royal tour of Canada silver dollar.

Portraits by other artists

Hahn was the subject of a larger than life-size (56 cm) bust by his former student Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook entitled ''Head of Emanuel Hahn''. The sculpture was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada in 1962 for its permanent collection.

References

Bibliography

* Baker, Victoria. ''Emanuel Hahn and Elizabeth Wyn Wood: Tradition and Innovation in Canadian Sculpture.'' Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1997. *

External links

*
Emanuel Hahn's Artist's Gallery
at the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

.
Mount Pleasant Cemetery group, monument to Empress of Ireland Salvation Army people who died May 29 1914.
written by Toronto Historian Mike Filey {{DEFAULTSORT:Hahn, Emanuel 1881 births People from Reutlingen 1957 deaths Canadian sculptors Canadian male sculptors German emigrants to Canada 20th-century German designers Canadian currency designers Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists German male sculptors Coin designers