Haig Patigian (, ; January 22, 1876 – September 19, 1950), was an

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

-born American sculptor, of

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

heritage. He spent most of his life in San Francisco, California.

Biography

Haig Patigian was born on January 22, 1876, in

Van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. There is some variation in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries. The smallest vans, microvans, are used for transporting either goods or ...

, Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), to parents of Armenian heritage. His father Avedis was a photographer, and he was accused by the Turkish government of acts of espionage and religious treason, resulting in the family needing to flee. Around 1891, Avedis left first, and settled in

Fresno Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

, California. A year or so later the rest of the family joined him. Around 1899, the Patigian family moved to San Francisco, California. He was largely self-taught as a sculptor. Patigian spent most of his career in San Francisco, and most of his works are located in California. The

Oakland Museum of California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

in Oakland, California, includes a large number of his works in its collection, and more can be seen in and around

San Francisco City Hall San Francisco City Hall is the seat of government for the City and County of San Francisco, California. Re-opened in 1915 in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, it is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epito ...

. Patigian was an active member of the

Bohemian Club The Bohemian Club is a private club with two locations: a city clubhouse in the Nob Hill district of San Francisco, California, and the Bohemian Grove, a retreat north of the city in Sonoma County. Founded in 1872 from a regular meeting of jour ...

, serving two terms as club president. He designed the Owl Shrine, a 40-foot high hollow concrete and steel structure which was built in the 1920s to have the appearance of a natural rock outcropping which happened to resemble an owl. The Owl Shrine became the centerpiece of the '' Cremation of Care'' ceremony at the

Bohemian Grove The Bohemian Grove is a restricted 2,700-acre (1,100-hectare) campground in Monte Rio, California. Founded in 1878, it belongs to a private gentlemen's club known as the Bohemian Club. In mid-July each year, the Bohemian Grove hosts a more than ...

in 1929. Patigian married Blanche Hollister of Courtland, California, in 1908. They lived in a house in at the corner of Hyde and Francisco Streets in the

Russian Hill Russian Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It is named after one of San Francisco's 44 hills, and one of its original "Seven Hills". Location Russian Hill is directly to the north (and slightly downhill) from Nob Hill, to t ...

neighborhood. Blanche died on September 10, 1950, only nine days before her husband. Patigian died at age 74 on September 19, 1950, at Stanford University Hospital in San Francisco, California. He is buried at

Cypress Lawn Memorial Park Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, established by Hamden Holmes Noble in 1892, is a rural cemetery located in Colma, California, a place known as the "City of the Silent". History Noble was a Civil War veteran who moved to California in 1865 and was ...

in Colma, California.

Public works

* McKinley statue (1906)

Arcata, California Arcata (; ; ) is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay (United States), Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, 2020 census, Arcata's population was 18,857. A ...

(removed February 28, 2019) *''Monument to Dr.

Chester Rowell Chester A. Rowell (October 17, 1844 – May 9, 1912) was an American physician and politician who served as a California state senator and as mayor of Fresno. He was also a regent of the University of California. Before moving to California, ...

'' (1914), Fresno, California *''Electricity'', ''Imagination'', ''Invention'' and ''Steam'' (c. 1915); four repeated sculptures at the Machinery Palace, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California (destroyed) *Statue of Gen.

John Pershing General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was an American army general, educator, and founder of the Pershing Rifles. He served as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forc ...

(1922), San Francisco, California *

Statue of Abraham Lincoln See also

* List of sculptures of presidents of the United States * Mount Rushmore * Presidential memorials in the United States {{Abraham Lincoln, state=collapsed Lists of sculptures of presidents of the United States, Lincoln, Abraham St ...

(1926), San Francisco, California * Statue of Thomas Starr King (1931), Sacramento, California; this work resided in the Capitol Building in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

as one of California's contributions to the

National Statuary Hall Collection The National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol is composed of statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history. Limited to two statues per state, the collection was originally set up in the old Hal ...

until being replaced by a statue of

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

in 2009. *Bronze death mask of

George Sterling George Sterling (December 1, 1869 – November 17, 1926) was an American writer based in the San Francisco, California Bay Area and Carmel-by-the-Sea. He was considered a prominent poet and playwright and proponent of Bohemianism during the fir ...

(1926), library of the

, San Francisco. A second copy is in the Henry Meade Williams Local History Room of the Harrison Memorial Library,

Carmel-by-the-Sea Carmel-by-the-Sea (), commonly known simply as Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, located on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 3,220, down from 3,722 at the 2010 census. Situa ...

, California. *''Volunteer Firemen Memorial'' (1933), San Francisco, California

Architectural sculpture

* M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, tympanum, San Francisco, California, circa 1895 (removed) *San Francisco Savings Union Bank building, pediment, San Francisco, California, 1911 *Palace of Fine Art & the Machinery Palace, (now destroyed) Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915 *Metropolitan Life Insurance Building, (now the Ritz Carlton Hotel) pediment, San Francisco, California, 1920 *''Navigation, Aviation'', and ''Industry'', Richfield Tower, Los Angeles, California, allegorical figures, 1928; when the building was demolished in 1968 the figures were moved to the Art Museum of the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

Department of Commerce Building The Herbert C. Hoover Building is the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the United States Department of Commerce. The building is located at 1401 Constitution Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C., on the block bounded by Constitution Avenue NW t ...

, pediment, Washington D.C., 1934

References

*Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture in America, unpublished manuscript *National Sculpture Society, Contemporary American Sculpture 1929, National Sculpture Society, New York, NY 1929 *Opitz, Glenn B, Editor, Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie NY, 1986 *Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina, 1968

External links

Painted portrait of Haig Patigian with Bohemian Owl in background
by Peter Ilyin (1927). Online Archive of California.
His work is everywhere in SF. But this secret society head is now largely forgotten.
by Greg Keraghosian, San Francisco Chronicle, Octocer 3, 2023. {{DEFAULTSORT:Patigian, Haig 1876 births 1950 deaths 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists 20th-century Armenian sculptors American male sculptors American people of Armenian descent Armenians from the Ottoman Empire Artists from San Francisco Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the United States National Sculpture Society members People from Van, Turkey Sculptors from California