Edward Maene

Career

Maene learned the stone- and wood-carving trade in his native Belgium, and studied in Paris. He immigrated to the United States in 1881, and settled in Philadelphia in 1883. There is evidence to suggest that he worked as a carver for Daniel Pabst, the premier custom-furniture maker in late-19th century Philadelphia. He opened his own workshop at what is now 239 South Lawrence Court, a half-block east of Pabst's workshop at 269 South 5th Street. Within less than a decade his shop employed "from twenty to twenty-five assistants." His nephew, John Maene (1863–1923), apprenticed in his shop in the 1880s, and was hired as foreman for the Rose Valley furniture shop in 1902. Following the 1906 closure of the Rose Valley venture, the nephew returned to the uncle's shop.

Wilson Eyre

Maene executed designs by architect Wilson Eyre, working on residential projects such as the Dr. Henry Genet Taylor House and Office (1884), in Camden, New Jersey; a new Dutch Colonial façade for the Rowley-Pullman House (altered 1886, demolished 1963), at 238 S. 3rd Street, Philadelphia; and the Charles Lang Freer House (1892), in Detroit, Michigan. His shop carved exterior stonework for Eyre's City Trust Building (1888, demolished c.1923), at 927-29 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia; and did work on Eyre's Newcomb Memorial Chapel (1894-95, demolished 1954), at Newcomb College in New Orleans, Louisiana.

At the 1887 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Annual Exhibition, Maene exhibited a frieze for an Eyre-designed house at 1022 Walnut Street, Philadelphia.

Willis G. Hale

Maene's shop carved exterior stonework for one of the most notorious buildings in Philadelphia—architect Willis G. Hale's own Hale Building (1887), at the southwest corner of Chestnut & Juniper Streets. A 7-story speculative office building – later known as the Lucas Building, the Keystone National Bank Building, and by other names – it seemed to squeeze an entire Gothic castle's worth of ornament into a narrow city lot. Critic Montgomery Schuyler, writing in the magazine Architectural Record, pronounced it an "architectural aberration": "absurd ... irrational, incongruent and ridiculous," one of "the monstrosities of Chestnut street." "Perhaps the most bizarre-looking skyscraper of the nineteenth century," it is now beloved by many for its funky awkwardness. Although the first story of its Chestnut Street façade has been altered repeatedly, much of the rest of its exterior remains intact.

Hale designed, and Maene's shop carved exterior stonework for the P. A. B. Widener Mansion (1887-88), at the northwest corner of Broad & Girard Avenues, Philadelphia. The Wideners occupied this for barely a decade—architect Horace Trumbauer soon designed them a Neoclassical palace, Lynnewood Hall (1897-1900), just outside the city. In 1900, the mansion became the Widener Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia. It was destroyed by fire in 1980.

University of Pennsylvania

Charles Custis Harrison became University of Pennsylvania provost in 1894, and immediately removed Frank Furness as unofficial campus architect, replacing him with the young firm of Cope and Stewardson. Beginning with the Quadrangle Dormitories, Harrison and his architects remade the campus in an exuberant Neo-Jacobean Collegiate Gothic style. Maene's workshop provided expert architectural carving for the exteriors of the new buildings, including 69 grotesque reliefs (bosses) for the Quadrangle. These caricatures of people and animals were carved in situ—blank limestone blocks had been mortared in above the second story, and his crew stood upon scaffolding to carve them:

Take, for instance, a boss of a man holding a tankard. The architect makes a rough charcoal sketch of the figure and sends the sketch to the sculptor. The sculptor models it in clay. He makes, in clay, a boss of the same size and the same relief as the real stone boss on the dormitory building is to be. Of course, the charcoal sketch is not much to go by. The sculptor must use his brain in his work. It is not mechanical; it is real creative work on his part, this making of a model from a sketch. After the model has been finished and approved by the architect it is sent out to the University, and the carver sets it up beside him and gets to work on the stone. He measures here and there, makes nicks here and there, and then he proceeds to copy his model. It takes him three or four days to finish one of the fourteen inch bosses. The work must be done with care, delicacy and tact. Only the most skillful carvers are fit to do such jobs.

Maene's team for the Quadrangle grotesques included Professor Henry F. Plasschaert of the Philadelphia School of Industrial Art, who modeled the figures in clay; William John Kaufmann and August Zeller (a former student of Thomas Eakins), who carved most of the grotesques; and Edmund T. Wright, who oversaw the carving and added finishing touches.

Cope and Stewardson also contracted with Maene to carve exterior ornament for the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1900), and for the Quadrangle's War Memorial Tower (1901) and Provost's Tower (1911).

Washington Memorial Chapel

Architect Milton Bennett Medary designed the Washington Memorial Chapel (1908-20), built on the site of the Continental Army's 1777-78 encampment at Valley Forge. Executing Medary's designs, Maene created and carved the oak pews, choir stalls, reredos, and other church furniture. The ornate oak doors were executed in collaboration with metalworker Samuel Yellin.

St. Clement's Church

Architect Horace Wells Sellers and Maene collaborated on multiple projects for St. Clement's Episcopal Church at 20th & Appletree Streets, Philadelphia. In 1908, Sellers increased the height of the church's apse by about 15 feet (4.6 m), raising the ceiling of the chancel within it. Maene's workshop carved a new red English sandstone altar, eight oak statues of saints, and a baldachin (canopy) above the altar. The shop also made the oak casing for an elaborate painted altarpiece with folding doors. Christ Reigning from the Cross, the altarpiece's 7-panel mural, was painted by artist Frederick Wilson.

Sellers designed and Maene executed the Lady Chapel, which was dedicated in 1915. Its altar, reredos, and groin-vaulted ceiling are all of red English sandstone. The altar front has three arched niches, each with a bas-relief figure of an angel. The reredos features three niches with statues of Saint Joseph and Saint Elizabeth flanking a central statue of the Virgin and Child. The baptismal font was designed by Sellers, and executed by Maene. It was dedicated in 1917. The Lea Memorial Pulpit was based on designs by Sellers, and executed by Maene. It was dedicated in 1921, and the canopy above it (carved by Maene) was added several years later. The Stations of the Cross were designed by Sellers, but never executed by Maene. They were completed by Bruno Zimm, and dedicated in 1932.

St. Mark's Church

Medary designed the Fiske Portal (1922-23), a new doorway for St. Mark's Episcopal Church at 1607-27 Locust Street, Philadelphia. Executing Medary's designs, Maene created the doors and carved the polychromatic "Christ in Majesty" tableau above them; Yellin fashioned their highly ornate iron hinges and hardware; and Nicola D'Ascenzo installed stained glass between the figures of the tableau, turning the tympanum into a transom. The project was (patronizingly) celebrated as a harmonious collaboration among immigrant artists—"iron work by Samuel Yellin from Poland; wood-carving by Edward Maene from Belgium; stained glass by Nicola D'Ascenzo from Italy."

Other commissions

Architects Milligan & Webber designed The Memorial Church of the Holy Nativity (1898-99), in Rockledge, Pennsylvania. Maene carved a white marble high-relief tableau of The Last Supper for its reredos.

Maene executed work for architect Will Price from the mid-1890s to the mid-1910s. In 1902, Price hired Maene's nephew John to run the Rose Valley furniture shop, which manufactured pieces designed by the architect. That same year, Price designed major interior alterations to the John S. Clarke House in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, although it is unclear whether these were executed by Edward Maene, John Maene, or both.

William Welsh Harrison, heir to a sugar-refining fortune (and brother of the University of Pennsylvania provost), commissioned an elaborate Gothic Revival cabinet to house his First Folio of Shakespeare plays. The commission was given to architect Horace Trumbauer – who had designed Harrison's residence, Grey Towers Castle (1893-97), in Glenside, Pennsylvania – but it was Will Price who designed the piece's highly-carved oak casing. The cabinet featured statuettes of Shylock and Portia, characters from The Merchant of Venice. The piece was not listed in the Rose Valley shop's records, and "was probably made in Edward Maene's shop." Warren Powers Laird, director of the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture, described the Harrison Shakespeare Folio Cabinet as "the finest piece of furniture ever made in this country." Its current whereabouts is unknown.

Architect Edgar V. Seeler designed a new building for The Evening Bulletin, at the northeast corner of Juniper & Filbert Streets, Philadelphia, 1906-08. The façade carving by Maene's shop featured the newspaper's logo: a globe with wings.

Architect Herbert J. Wetherill altered the interior of Grace Episcopal Church, in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, 1908-09. Executing Wetherill's designs, Maene carved the altar, reredos and a 23-foot (7 m) tall rood screen.

St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Perth Amboy, New Jersey was seriously damaged in the 1918 Morgan Munitions Depot explosion. Maene was part of the team that restored the church's interior.

Sellers altered the interior of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, 1924-29. Executing Sellers's designs, Maene created a white marble rood screen and a new set of choir stalls.

In an 1897 advertisement, Maene listed (unspecified) work on other Philadelphia churches: St. Peter's Episcopal Church at 6000 Wayne Avenue; the Church of the New Jerusalem at 22nd & Chestnut Streets; Patterson Memorial Presbyterian Church at 63rd & Vine Streets (c.1895, demolished); Princeton Presbyterian Church at 38th Street & Powelton Avenue (demolished); and a Philadelphia synagogue: Temple Keneseth Israel at Broad Street & Columbia Avenue (1891, demolished).

Business

Maene was profiled in an 1892 business directory:

E. Maene, Sculptor, No. 239 Griscom Street, between Fourth and Fifth, Spruce and Pine.—The demand for decorations in architecture in this country is a growing one; and it is well represented in this city by Mr. E. Maene, whose office and works are at No. 239 Griscom Street, between Fourth and Fifth, Spruce and Pine Streets. This gentleman was born in Belgium, where he first studied his profession, which he has followed for the past twenty-four years. He came to this country ten years ago, coming to Philadelphia two years later, and seven years ago he established business here, meeting with excellent success. He employs from twenty to twenty-five assistants, occupies a two story building 100x40 feet in dimensions, and executes designs for ornamental and statuary work of all kinds. He has done a large amount of carving for residences and public buildings, including the Jewish Temple, Keystone Bank, Bank at 927 Chestnut Street, etc. His trade extends all over the country. All of Mr. Maene's products bear the stamp of artistic excellence and the imprint of the master's hand. The city is to be congratulated upon the accession of her industries, than which no more praiseworthy institution exists within her boundaries.

The T-Square Club, an association of Philadelphia architects, elected Maene an honorary member. His advertisement in the club's 1896-97 catalogue shows that he had moved his workshop about a half-block, to south of Pine Street:

The listing in a 1900 directory shows his business at the same addresses (although Griscom St. had been renamed Lawrence St.), and his residence in the Bustleton section of Philadelphia.

The T Square Club's 1922 exhibition featured works by Philadelphia master craftsmen: Samuel Yellin (iron work), Nicola D'Ascenzo (stained glass), John H. Bass (decorative sculpture), and Edward Maene (furniture).

Personal

Maene married Susanne Menegaux (1856–1916) in 1883, and they had two children, Claire (1887–1967) and Victor (born 1892). He and his wife are buried in the cemetery of Pennepack Baptist Church, Bustleton, Philadelphia. He carved the stone angel holding a lily that marks her grave.