Biography of Biography of: Warburg, Joseph Eugène Submitted by Derik P. LeCesne ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Source: Louisiana’s Black Heritage Published by the Louisiana State Museum 1979; pages 74 - 78 Nineteenth Century Black Artists VISUAL ARTS: SCULPTURE In the field of sculpture Louisiana’s population de couleur also provided a man of talent: Eugène Warburg. His father, Daniel Warburg, was a member of the distinguished Jewish family of Hamburg, Germany. In New Orleans - where we find Daniel in 1821 - he found a mistress in Marie Rose (Blondeau), a native of Santiago, Cuba, and perhaps of a family originally from Saint-Domingue. Her mother, Venus, was probably a slave of Daniel’s. Marie-Rose was also a slave until freed sometime after the birth of Eugène. Daniel Warburg was in his early thirties when his liaison began with twenty-year-old Marie-Rose, who bore him five children before she died November 1, 1837, at the age of 33. Joseph Eugène, their eldest, was born in 1825, or possibly in the early weeks of 1826; at the age of four he was with due legal procedure emancipated by his father. Eugène, trained as a marble cutter, opened a studio-shop at 89 St. Peter Street when he was in his early twenties, and was successful enough to arouse jealousy in his competitors. His native talent for sculpture was fostered in lessons from Garbeille, the prestigious sculptor who was commissioned by leading New Orleanians before he was invited to Havana to do a statue of the Queen of Spain. When young Warburg in 1850 exhibited a Ganymede for viewing and for sale, the New Orleans Bee praised 'this exquisite specimen of sculpture.' The work 'by a young Creole of our city.' The critic felt, 'reflects infinite credit upon the taste and talent of our townsmen.' The journalist of the Bee predicted that, with study and labor, Eugène Warburg would 'doubtless attain deserved excellence.' The Ganymede was to be 'raffled' for $500, 'its estimated value.' By 1852 Eugène was ready to go abroad. As the eldest of five natural children he had obligations to his brothers and sisters, none of whom had yet reached majority. To obtain legal security and equal distribution of the small inheritance of three slaves left by Marie-Rose, Eugène filed a friendly suit against his father in November of 1852. Cooperatively Daniel Warburg, 'as natural tutor of his minor children,' sought a family meeting in accordance with the law regarding tutelage of minors. In the meeting held before a notary public six free men of color participated as family friends and protectors of the interests of the minors. The court, receiving the unanimous decision of the family meeting, ordered the sale of the slaves; the proceeds due to the minor children would be deposited with the family notary for investment until majority. To Eugène would come in early 1853 as his total portion of his mother’s estate the sum of #252.36. The eager young sculptor had not, however, awaited the conclusion of the case. Designating his father as his agent, Eugène Warburg had set out for Europe about the end of November of 1852. Following in the footsteps of other Louisiana Creoles, Eugène made his way to Paris. Pursuing his study and career, the young American came to the attention of United States Minister to France, John Young Mason, who in 1855 commissioned Warburg to sculpt the bust of the diplomat which is now in the possession of the Virginia Historical Society. It is interesting to recall that a decade earlier Garbeille, Warburg’s instructor, had been invited to do a statue of Louisiana’s Pierre Soulè, who now in 1853 was United States Minister to Spain. Soulè provided Eugène Warburg, his fellow Louisianian and Garbeille’s former pupil, with a general letter of introduction. Might we not imagine Soulè and Mason discussing the Creole’s talent in leisure moments when they were preparing the Ostend Manifesto signed in late 1854? In any case, a few months later Warburg did the Mason bust in classical style: the artist shows us a statesman capable of serving his republic with the strength and dignity of a senator of the Roman republic. Warburg could hope for a career in sculpture as promising as the achievement in drama of his compatriot Victor Sèjour, but the sculptor, unlike the dramatist, did not remain in Paris. In 1856 Warburg traveled to Belgium, and then on to England. The Duchess of Sutherland commissioned him to do some bas-reliefs representing scenes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin. When and where Warburg created Le Pecheur and Le Premier Baiser, works listed by Desdunes as meriting attention, is unknown. In mid-1857, equipped now with commendatory letters from Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Duchess of Sutherland as well as from Pierre Soulè, Warburg set out for Italy, the dreamland of nineteenth-century American artists. His arrival in Florence was mentioned in a letter which, published in northern U.S. newspapers, found its way into the columns of the New Orleans Daily Picayune: We have here a mulatto sculptor from New Orleans (Eugene Warburg) who brings commendation from Mr. Soulè, Mrs. Stowe and the Duchess of Sutherland, who gives some promise of respectable attainments in the profession. The Daily Crescent also published the notice of the talented 'colored artist,' but added bitingly 'We know nothing in regard to its truth.' However, not doubting the word about Soulè’s part in the whole, the newspaper praised him sarcastically: 'We congratulate Mr. Soulè upon his good fortune in being placed in such distinguished juxtaposition.' After a brief sojourn in Florence Warburg arrived in Rome, where he would have found thirty or more American artists in residence. Since most of the sculptors from the United States were modelers in clay, the stone-carving Warburg might have become outstanding among them. According to Desdunes, 'in the Eternal City, Warburg found the happiness he was seeking, but only for a short time.' His happiness-and meager resources-he shared with his wife Louise Ernestine. They settled down in the shortest of streets, the Vicolo Alibert, near the Spanish Steps of the Piazza di Spagna, a neighborhood long congenial to artists. Did Eugène look forward to a long career in the city of Michelangelo? Or had ominous illness as well as artistic yearning prompted his leaving England and northern France for the sunnier climate of Italy? He fell ill in Rome not in the dangerous malarial season of the summer but rather in the chill of the first days of 1859. The parish priest brought him the sacraments of the Church. In the prime of life and career Joseph Eugène Warburg died on January 12, 1859. Funeral services were held in Santa Maria del Popolo: burial took place in the Campo Verano Cemetery of St. Lawrence. Two months later New Orleans read about his death in a laudatory obituary published by l’Abeille, the Bee, consistent with that newspaper’s prediction of nineteen years earlier: Death has just stricken Louisiana in one of her children who promised fair to shed lustre on his native land…Mr. E. Warburg, after studying sculpture in the immortal city, had already shown a remarkable talent which gave hope for a fine future. Death, in striking him at the beginning of a career which opened so brilliantly before the young artist, did not leave him time to complete his work. Eugène Warburg would incontestably have taken an eminent place in the pleiad of those American artists who strive to add one more ray to the lustre of their land. It is a loss for America; a cause of mourning for New Orleans; an emptiness in the arts. Meanwhile, Joseph Daniel Warburg, Eugène’s brother, an infant when their mother died, a teen-ager when Eugène went off to Europe, continued his work as a marble cutter, with a shop on St. Louis Street near Basin in their native city. Outliving Eugène by almost half a century, Daniel married and fathered another Daniel. Son, like father became a marble cutter, and ornamented beautiful toms. So distinguishing care must be had in attributing turn-of-the-century funerary sculpture from the hand of 'Daniel Warburg.' The carved column of the Holcombe-Aiken monument in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, is an example of the work of 'Daniel Warburg.' Eugène’s brother is said by some authors to have been an engraver, but none gives evidence: as one of them adds, 'engravings attributed to Daniel Warburg have not been found.'