Rosehill Mausoleum, Chicago
The mausoleum features a rotunda with relief panels of the four seasons by Leon Hermant, sculptor
Rosehill Masoleum. Source: Rosehill Cemetery, Dignity Memorial
Background:
Rosehill Cemetery, in northwest Chicago, is the city's largest and oldest cemetery, dating back to 1859, and contains at least 200,000 grave sites in a 350-acre garden setting.
Dedicated in 1914, the cemetery's Rosehill Mausoleum was designed by architect Sidney Lovell, who is interred within. The interior is almost entirely of marble, with the floors composed of Italian Carrara marble. Several later additions would be made to the building; there were six additions made after 1913, and a final one in 1975.
Leon Hermant (1866–1936) was an American sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture. Hermant was born in France, educated in Europe and came to America in 1904 to work on the French Pavilion at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri.
For most of his career he was based in Chicago, working mostly in the American midwest, and frequently with a partner Carl Beil.
From 1904, when they met in St. Louis, until 1927, Hermant and Beil were partners at their Sculpture Studio at 21 East Pearson Street in Chicago. Leon was the Artist, Carl, the "Executioner." Hermant continued his art after Beil's death in 1927, receiving a major commission for the Indiana State Library in 1934. Hermant exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1920s, and would complete many sculptures throughout the U.S. [Chicago Sculpture in the Loop]
In 1928 Hermant was awarded the LĂ©gion d'honneur by the French government for his Louis Pasteur Monument in Grant Park, Chicago.
Pasteur Monument, Grant Park, Chicago
In the 1929 Fourth Addition to Rosehill Mausoleum, a marble rotunda features relief panels of the four seasons executed by Hermant, placed between engaged marble columns. Each panel contains a brief quote below, appropriate to the season. Leon Hermant's signature appears on the bottom right of only one panel, Winter.
The yellowish lighting within the rotunda is so dim that photography is difficult, and one strains to appreciate the quality of the sculptures. I'd admired these panels before, but it was thanks to some thorough research by Jim Craig of Under Every Tombstone that I was alerted to their sculptor's identity.
Leon Hermant, 1866-1936 Source: Under Every Tombstone
Construction News, February 22, 1913, pp. 6-7. Click to view larger
See detail of ad below:
Photos from my recent visit to Rosehill Mausoleum, July 19, 2024:
Rosehill Mausoleum, corridor leading to the rotunda
Rotunda east side, Winter (left), Spring (right)
Rotunda west side, Summer (left), Autumn (right)
The south of the rotunda is occupied by the elegant Rawson family crypt. The north opens to a corridor leading to other areas of the mausoleum.
The Four Seasons
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
Inscriptions at the base of the four panels:
SPRING
Hail bounteous May, that dost inspire
Mirth, and youth and warm desire
Hill and dale dost boast thy blessing
This we salute thee with our early song
and welcome and wishe thee long.
                     Milton.
SUMMER
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
…So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
                       Shakespeare
AUTUMN
There is no death! The stars go down
To rise upon some other shore.
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown
They shine for evermore.
…For all the universe is life…
There are no dead."
                    Maeterlink
WINTER
When once our heavenly souls shall climb
Then all earthly grossness quit.
Attired with stars we shall forever sit
Triumphing over death and change and thee
O time!
                    -Milton-
Detail of Autumn
Signature of Leon Hermant Sc. [sculptor] on the Winter panel
A sculpture inside a family crypt [not attributed to Hermant, but I liked it]
Plan of main level of Rosehill Mausoleum; yellow circle indicates location of the four seasons rotunda.
Beil and Hermant created the relief sculptures above the mausoleum's main entrance (see below).
The mansions of the silent, by Booth, A.L. Published in: Fine arts journal, 1916.
Leon Hermant's other works in Chicago include:
Former Illinois Athletic Club, now SAIC MacLean Center; 12th floor frieze (1908); Zeus presiding over athletic contests.
William Shakespeare, (1915) Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Louis Pasteur Monument, (1928) Grant Park, Chicago
City Hall and Cook County Building, (1911), Chicago
Radisson Chicago Hotel [Medinah Athletic Club] Reliefs, (1929), Chicago; According to an article in the Chicago Tribune from Sept 16, 1928 entitled “Building art inspires panels,” “The friezes were designed by George Unger, in collaboration with Walter Ahlschlager, and carved by Leon Hermant."
One North Lasalle Street (1930), Vitzthum and Burns architects, Chicago
via Prabook site
SOURCES/ LINKS:
One afternoon recently I was wandering the halls of the Community Mausoleum at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago. Although I have been there lit
LĂ©on Hermant, Wikipedia
Sidney Lovell, Wikipedia
"The Mansions of the Silent," by Anne Lisle Booth, Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 34, No. 6 (Jun. - Jul., 1916), pp. 265-274
"Rosehill Cemetery Mausoleum," Construction News, February 22, 1913, pp. 6-7.
