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 ...

and

coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in orde ...

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

Sculptors' Society of Canada The Sculptors Society of Canada (SSC) promotes and exhibits contemporary Canadian sculpture. Founded by Canadian sculptors Frances Loring, Florence Wyle, Elizabeth Wyn Wood, Wood's teacher and husband Emanuel Hahn, Henri Hébert and Alfred L ...

Biography

Education and training

Hahn was born in

Reutlingen Reutlingen (; Swabian: ''Reitlenga'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it has a population of 115,818. Reutlingen has a university of applied sciences, which ...

(today a part of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a 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 inhabitants across a ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

) and moved to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

in 1888 with his family. He studied modelling and commercial design at the Toronto Technical School and

Ontario College of Art Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within d ...

as well as Industrial Design from 1899-1903. 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 Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the S ...

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 independ ...

Ontario, and the Baldwin-Lafontaine Monument on

Parliament Hill Parliament Hill (french: Colline du Parlement, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings, and their archit ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. In 1912 he was hired as a modeling instructor at the

, ultimately heading the sculpture department until his retirement in 1951. He was made a member of the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor Genera ...

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 Edward Hanlan (12 July 1855 – 4 January 1908) was a Canadian professional sculler, hotelier, and alderman from Toronto, Ontario. Early life Hanlan was born to Irish parents; one of two sons and two daughters. His mother was Mary Gibbs, his fath ...

(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 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who ha ...

monument (1902) in

Allan Gardens Allan Gardens is a conservatory and urban park located in the Garden District of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The property includes a playground, off-leash dog park, and a conservatory with six green houses. The park originated from lands donated ...

, Toronto Image:Sam Lount bas relief.jpg, Emanuel Hahn's Memorial to

Samuel Lount Samuel Lount (September 24, 1791 – April 12, 1838) was a blacksmith, farmer, magistrate and member of the Legislative Assembly in the province of Upper Canada for Simcoe County from 1834 to 1836. He was an organizer of the failed Upper Can ...

(1938) at

Mackenzie House Mackenzie House is a historic building and museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that was the last home of William Lyon Mackenzie, the city's first mayor. It is now a museum operated by the City of Toronto's Museum and Heritage Services. History The ...

, Toronto File:Alexander Graham Bell Brantford Monument 0.98.jpg,

Bell Telephone Memorial The Bell Memorial (also known as the Bell Monument or Telephone Monument) is a memorial designed by Walter Seymour Allward to commemorate the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell at the Bell Homestead National Historic Site, in Br ...

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 Saint-Lambert () is a city (french: ville) in southwestern Quebec, Canada, located on the South Shore (Montreal), south shore of the St. Lawrence River, opposite Montreal. It is part of the Urban agglomeration of Longueuil of the Montérégie ad ...

Cenotaph by Emanuel Hahn, inaugurated on July 9, 1922, by General Sir

Arthur Currie General Sir Arthur William Currie, (5 December 187530 November 1933) was a senior officer of the Canadian Army who fought during World War I. He had the unique distinction of starting his military career on the very bottom rung as a pre-w ...

* In 1916, a monument designed by Salvation Army Major Gideon Miller, and sculpted by Emanuel Hahn was dedicated to Salvationists who lost their lives in the sinking of the

RMS Empress of Ireland RMS ''Empress of Ireland'' was a British-built ocean liner that sank near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River in Canada following a collision in thick fog with the Norwegian Collier (ship), collier in the early hours of 29 May 1914. Althoug ...

29 May 1914, was unveiled. Every year, the church holds a special service of remembrance at the memorial in

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a cemetery located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries. It was opened in November 1876 and is located north of Moore Park, a neighbourhood of Toronto. The cemetery has k ...

on the Sunday closest to 29 May. * Hahn's statue of a grieving soldier for the War Memorial,

Westville, Nova Scotia Westville is a town in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is located immediately west of Stellarton and about four kilometres southwest of New Glasgow, the major town in the area. History Originally called Acadian Village, the name Westv ...

was replicated for several other monuments, including the cenotaph in

Gaspé, Quebec Gaspé is a city at the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region of eastern Quebec in Canada. Gaspé is located about northeast of Quebec City, and east of Rimouski. As of the 2021 Canadian Census, the city h ...

. 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

and a meditating figure of Tommy in his Greatcoat in

Lindsay, Ontario Lindsay is a community of 22 367 people ( 2021 census) on the Scugog River in the Kawartha Lakes region of south-eastern Ontario, Canada. It is approximately west of Peterborough. It is the seat of the City of Kawartha Lakes (formerly Victor ...

. 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 event that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the third Friday of August leading up to and including Canadian Labour Day ...

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 The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto (usually just called ''The Arts and Letters Club'') is a private club in Toronto, Ontario, which brings together writers, architects, musicians, painters, graphic artists, actors and others working in or with ...

and served as the first President of the

, which he established with

Frances Loring Frances Norma Loring LL.D. (October 14, 1887– February 5, 1968) was a Canadian sculptor. Career Loring studied in Europe before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied with Lorado Taft. She was a member of both the Royal C ...

Florence Wyle Florence Wyle (November 14, 1881 – January 14, 1968) was an American-Canadian sculptor, designer and poet; a pioneer of the Canadian art scene. She practiced chiefly in Toronto, living and working with her partner Frances Loring, with whom s ...

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 Oak Bay is a municipality incorporated in 1906 that is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of thirteen member municipalities of the Capital Regional District, and is bordered ...

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 A coureur des bois (; ) or coureur de bois (; plural: coureurs de(s) bois) was an independent entrepreneurial French-Canadian trader who travelled in New France and the interior of North America, usually to trade with First Nations peoples by ...

'') from the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...

and an

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: ** First Nat ...

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

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...

racing schooner ''

Bluenose ''Bluenose'' was a fishing and racing gaff rig schooner built in 1921 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. A celebrated racing ship and fishing vessel, ''Bluenose'' under the command of Angus Walters, became a provincial icon for Nova Scotia an ...

'' on the 10¢ coin; the caribou head on the 25¢ coin; and the

Canadian Parliament Buildings The Canadian Parliament Buildings are the parliament buildings housing the Parliament of Canada, located on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Parliament Buildings The Parliament Buildings are three edifices arranged around three sides o ...

reverse of the

1939 royal tour of Canada The 1939 royal tour of Canada by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth was undertaken in the build-up to World War II as a way to emphasise the links between Britain and Canada. The royal tour lasted from 17 May to 15 June, covering every Canadian p ...

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. The bust in the National Gallery is the only bronze cast; a plaster version is in a private 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
at

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

Emanuel Hahn's Artist's Gallery
at the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the ...

.
Mount Pleasant Cemetery group, monument to Empress of Ireland Salvation Army people who died May 29 1914.
written by Toronto Historian

Mike Filey Mike Filey (October 11, 1941 – July 30, 2022) was a Canadian historian, radio host, journalist and author. He was awarded the Jean Hibbert Memorial Award in 2009 for promoting the city of Toronto and its history. Early life Born in 1941 in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hahn, Emanuel 1881 births 1957 deaths Canadian sculptors Canadian male sculptors German emigrants to Canada 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