Museum of Fine Arts: C. Paul Jennewein and "The First Step"

This bronze statue is called The First Step. It captures a mother lovingly guiding her son as he begins to take his first step. The statue was created by American artist C. Paul Jennewein (1890-1978). The statue is approximately 30 inches high and is located in the north courtyard of the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. We went across Tampa Bay to see the current exhibition of photography on display from the museum’s collection. There were images from the earliest years in the mid nineteenth century, masters of the twentieth century including American photographer Burk Uzzle, to Len Prince and his recent images of Sally Mann’s daughter, Jessie. Because we cannot take photographs inside the museum galleries, I went out into the sculpture garden, used the cell phone and took a few photos of the pieces from the permanent collection displayed outdoors. There are several very impressive sculptures. You can see The First Step on a pedestal in the center of the garden photo.

Jennewein was born in Stuttgart, Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1907. He spent his early years as a muralist. In 1912, he completed the four murals for the Woolworth Building in New York City. Following his military service with the U.S. Army during World War I he moved to Rome where he studied at the American Academy of Rome. It was while living and studying in Italy that his concentration turned to sculpture. He is best known today for the figures completed in 1933 in the pediment of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. During his career he sculpted five majestic and monumental eagles: one at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, another one at the Memorial Bridge in Arlington, Virginia, the third on the Federal Office Building in New York City, and a fourth, for the Spanish-American War Memorial in Rochester, New York. The fifth is at the Ardennes Memorial in Belgium. He created smaller eagles for the American Embassy in Paris. Jim Jennewein, the artist’s son, is an architect and lives in Tampa.

As everyone who lives in this area of Florida knows, we had one of our fast moving rainstorms today of what seemed to be biblical proportions. The deluge flooded the interstate highway and roads as we drove over to downtown St. Petersburg. If you go in closer to the statue, the mother and son are dripping from the rain, but still the light in the garden was soft and beautiful. The photo of the entrance to the museum shows the banners announcing the current and future exhibitions.