Christian Wahl

Christian Wahl

Artist	Gaetano Trentanove
Year	1903 (1903)
Type	bronze
Dimensions	240 cm (96 in)
Location	W. Hampton Ave. between N. 47th St. and N. 48th St., Milwaukee
Coordinates	43°6′11.284″N 87°58′21.616″W / 43.10313444°N 87.97267111°W / 43.10313444; -87.97267111Coordinates: 43°6′11.284″N 87°58′21.616″W / 43.10313444°N 87.97267111°W / 43.10313444; -87.97267111

Christian Wahl is a public artwork by Italian artist Gaetano Trentanove located in Wahl Park, which is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The bronze bust of Milwaukee businessman Christian Wahl was created in 1903, and is set atop a red granite pedestal. Altogether it measures 8 feet in height.

Description

The bronze bust of Christian Wahl depicts a kindly balding older gentleman sporting a beard and mustache, and wearing an overcoat, suit and tie. The sculpture sits on a red granite base with an inscription on the back stating: He gave/ his ripest years and study/ to the parks/ rewarded alive/ by/ grateful remembrance. This inscription is signed.^[1] There is an inscription on the front of the base that states: In memory of Christian Wahl/ born February 12, 1829/ died October 19, 1901. It is located in Wahl Park, on the north side of Milwaukee, and is administered by the Milwaukee County, Department of Parks, Recreation and Culture.

Short video of sculpture.

Historical information

Christian Wahl was a wealthy businessman often referred to as the father of Milwaukee's public parks because he led most of the planning of the county's park system. Wahl was born in Bavaria in 1829 and moved with his family to a farm 5 miles south of Milwaukee in 1848. After traveling extensively, he settled in Chicago where he joined his brother in the glue business. Wahl served on Chicago's city council and board of education. Upon retiring, he moved back to Milwaukee, purchasing a home on Prospect Avenue. Wahl's home soon became the center of Milwaukee's German-American society, as he often hosted musical and literary events. "During the last years of his life, as a wealthy, retired businessman, Wahl was president of the first City Park Board in the board's first decade. His strong leadership was instrumental in the development of the city's park system and he took a deep personal interest in the completion of Lake Park."^[2] When Wahl died in 1901, Der Herald, Milwaukee's German-language newspaper, stated that his altruistic labor deserved a monument, and the city's citizens agreed.

The sculpture was originally placed in the outside court between two porticoes in Lake Park, Milwaukee. The dedication ceremonies, planned to coincide with the opening of a park pavilion, took place on July 11, 1903. "Judge George H. Noyes made the presentation speech, the bust remaining with the American flag. As Judge Noyes ceased speaking Clauder's Military Band struck up The Star Spangled Banner, while Cyril Gordon Weld, the grandson of Mr. Wahl, cut the cord that held the national colors about the bust, and the flag full, disclosing the features of Christian Wahl."^[3] The dedication ended with Wahl's widow presented a collection of large palm trees, assembled by the late Wahl, to the park board.

Wahl Park was named in Christian Wahl's honor in 1956,^[4] and Wahl's bust was moved there in 1960.

Christian Wahl was recognized during his lifetime. The street leading from the southeast into Lake Park is named Wahl Avenue.

Location history

Christian Wahl was originally sited in Lake Park, in Milwaukee's East Side in 1903. It was moved to Wahl Park, located in Milwaukee's North Side, in 1960.

Artist

Main article: Gaetano Trentanove

References

↑ , SIRIS.
↑ Buck, Diane M. and Virginia A. Palmer (1995). Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: A Cultural and Historical Guidebook, p. 151. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison
↑ Usher, Ellis Baker (1914). Wisconsin: its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume 5, p. 1363. The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago
↑ Albano, Laurie Muench (2007). Milwaukee County Parks. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston

External links

City of Milwaukee

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Milwaukee public art

Downtown	The Victorious Charge Family The Calling Wisconsin Workers Memorial Wind Leaves Birds of Knowledge of Good and Evil The Great Double Woodland Indian and Whistling Swans Solomon Juneau Leif, the Discoverer Letter Carriers' Monument Argo Bronze Fonz Walkways Through the Wall Abraham Lincoln George Washington Referee Immigrant Mother King Gambrinus RiverSculpture! Gertie the Duck General Douglas MacArthur The Spirit of Polonia World War I Memorial Flagpole Pedestrian Drama Midsummer Carnival Shaft Acqua Grylli Laureate Diana Trigon Pere Jacques Marquette Spanish-American War Soldier Ruins X Ex Stasis City Yard Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Peter John A Beam of Sun to Shake the Sky Rainbow Machine Topiary Lucere Dancing Through Life Gertie Gets Her Ducks in a Row Mother Teresa Monument Jacques Marquette You Rise Above the World The Last Alarm

North Side	Celebrating the Arts Christian Wahl Elk On Watch Pattern Lapham Memorial Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. here, mothers are... Music Fishing Spirit of the Firefighter Dauntless Guardian Buildings 1992 Gear 23 All in the Air at Once First Flight Sea of the Ear Kindred Ties

East Side	Cleopatra's Wedge Float Polyphony Boy with Goose Eight Stone Lions Three Bronze Discs Holocaust Memorial Happy-Go-Luckies of Nature and Technology Blue Dress Park Sentinels Hermes Milwaukee Eclipse 'X' Intertwining Compass Erastus B. Wolcott Sharing the Load Robert Burns Near Here Compass Walk Like a River Spillover II Tip Jantar-Mantar Cass Street Park Brady Street Beasts Connect Fairies Candles

South Side	Menomonee Count Casimir Pulaski Spirit of Commerce Bay View Series A Place to Sit Stratiformis The Hill Climber Deflected Jets Angel in a Cage R.D. Whitehead Monument Memorial for Belle Austin Jacobs T.A. Chapman Memorial Nature Belle Oops, Missed Space Game Engine Company No. 10 William A. Starke Memorial Steel Reborn Red Flower Rising General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Patrick Cudahy Memorial SOARING Two Opposites Reaching Up Toward the Peak of Progress Edge Elements Ribbons VI Bridge Stone Bracelet Untitled Quartet Tending the Fire Bird and Fish The Sower The Reaper Giving Gifts

West Side	Henry Bergh Goethe–Schiller Monument Chrysalis The Ideal Scout Uptown Triangles Tree of Life Magic Grove Steuben Monument Kneeling Camels Teamwork Aaron Monument Yount Monument Selig Monument Uecker Monument Fire and Water Vliet Street Commons Miller Valley Veterans Monument Children of the West End

Lynden Sculpture Garden	Sinai Wandering Rocks Sea Form (Atlantic) Sky Fence Floating Sculpture No. 3 Mo, Ni, Que Trio Two-Piece Reclining Figure No. 9 Way Four Compound Junior Salem No. 7 Bremen Town Musicians Ancestor Queen of Sheba Rhythm in Space Peristyle, Three Lines Orizzontale Embrace Ursa Major Three Graces Large Torso, Arch Double Up Upstart The Lovers Poland Axeltree Orbits Ritual II Hara Olympus The Lovers Tensione No. 2 The Source Rainbow Unfolding Vegetative Sculpture I Round About Lodgepole Twist for Max Bench-Stone Windfall Knife Tree Conversations with Magic Stones, Figure Three Conversations with Magic Stones (Magic Stone Three) Kumo Untitled Arch Epicenter Epicenter II III Columns Flight Pin Oak I

Mobile projects	Overpass Light Brigade

Overview	List of public art in Milwaukee

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