Olin Levi Warner

Olin Levi Warner studied at École des Beaux-Arts. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are Paris and New York City. Works named in the authority record are Skidmore Fountain. Work by Olin Levi Warner is recorded in the collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art and Smithsonian American Art Museum.

• Name — Olin Levi Warner • Born — 9 April 1844 • Birthplace — Suffield, Connecticut, U.S. • Died — 14 August 1896 • Place of death — New York City, New York, U.S. • Known for — Bas relief, sculpture

Warner was born in Suffield, Connecticut. Warner's great-great-uncle was the Revolutionary leader Seth Warner.

As a young man he worked as an artisan and a telegraph operator. In 1869, he had saved up enough money to move to Paris, where he studied sculpture at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts under François Jouffroy, and worked as an assistant to Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. When the French Third Republic was proclaimed in 1870, he enlisted in the Foreign Legion, resuming his studies when the siege was over (May 1871). In 1872, he moved to New York City and established a studio. He was one of the founders and a member of the Society of American Artists in 1877, and an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1888. A trip through the Northwest Territory led to a series of Native American-themed portrait medallions. He designed the souvenir half-dollar for the Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. After meeting with little commercial success, however, he returned to live at his father's farm in Vermont, where he also did work for manufacturers of silver and plated ware. Towards the end of his life his sculptures became known to a wider audience.

He died in 1896, after a cycling accident in Central Park in New York City. In the 1970s, Warner's heirs donated his collection of personal papers to the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art. Warner is credited with popularizing the bas relief, through numerous portraits in this style. Among his best known works are: • May (1872) • "Edwin Forrest" (medallion, 1876) • Rutherford B. Hayes (bust, 1876) • Twilight (1878) • Dancing Nymph (1879) • Eight portrait busts on the facade of the Brooklyn Historical Society including Michelangelo, Beethoven, Columbus, Franklin, Gutenberg, Shakespeare, a Norseman, and a Native American. (1881) • "Gov. William Alfred Buckingham" (statue, 1883) • Statue of William Lloyd Garrison (1885) • "The Reverend William F. Morgan, D. D." (bust, 1887) • Skidmore Fountain for Portland, Oregon (1888) • Diana (1888) • Major General Charles Devens (statue, 1892–1896) • In 1895, he was commissioned to create three bronze portals (tympanum and pair of doors) for the Library of Congress. The three tympanums and one door had been completed when he died, and Herbert Adams finished the rest of the commission.