1. Jorgen Dreyer emigrated to the United States in 1903 and worked as a professor of sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute from 1907 to 1909.
34 Facts About Jorgen Dreyer
1. 2.
Jorgen Dreyer was the son of Hans Dreyer and his wife Regina Dreyer.
3.
Jorgen Dreyer grew to become a tall man, of slender build, and had blue eyes and auburn brown hair.
4.
Jorgen Dreyer continued studies with Stephan Sinding, one of the greatest of European sculptors.
5.
Jorgen Dreyer modeled a bust of an Ibsen character, which Ibsen saw at a school exhibition.
6.
Jorgen Dreyer went to America in 1903 and made Kansas City, Missouri, his home for more than 40 years.
7.
Jorgen Dreyer moved into a studio and an apartment at 407 Studio Building in Kansas City.
8.
Jorgen Dreyer was a sculpture professor at the Fine Arts Institute from 1907 to 1909.
9.
Jorgen Dreyer married Lorena E McWilliams, one of his students, in 1918.
10.
Jorgen Dreyer sculpted a bust of Major Archibald Butt who was killed in the Titanic disaster.
11.
The commissioned piece, which Jorgen Dreyer completed on June 15,1912, and titled The Message, was on a base representing a ship on the ocean.
12.
Jorgen Dreyer sculpted a bust of Frank Marvin, founder and dean of the engineering school at the University of Kansas in 1914.
13.
Jorgen Dreyer was on the faculty of the Dillenbeck School of Expression from 1915 to 1917.
14.
In 1915 Jorgen Dreyer created a bust of lumber magnate John Barber White, which is displayed in the main branch of the Kansas City Library, Missouri Valley Special Collections.
15.
Also in 1915 Jorgen Dreyer made a bust of John Priest Greene, former president of William Jewell College.
16.
In 1916 Dreyer made a bust of Delbert J Haff which is located near E Meyer Blvd.
17.
In 1918 Jorgen Dreyer registered for the draft with the Selective Service, but did not serve in the war.
18.
In 1919 Dreyer was commissioned by the 1919 class of William Jewell College to create a bronze memorial tablet in honor of 16 students who died in World War I It was in the library and is in the archives of the college at Liberty, Missouri.
19.
In 1920 Jorgen Dreyer sculpted two diminutive bakers for the Rushton Baking Company on Southwest Boulevard in Rosedale, a suburb of Kansas City.
20.
In 1922 Jorgen Dreyer was commissioned by the Kansas City Park Board to add a lion to a fountain for the Fitzsimons Memorial at 12th and The Paseo.
21.
Jorgen Dreyer was commissioned by the Order of DeMolay in 1925 to design and execute a Medal of Heroism, "for heroic endeavor".
22.
Jorgen Dreyer viewed lions at morning and evening hours at the Swope Park Zoo, now named the Kansas City Zoo, and chose the lioness because it did not have the mane to hide the fluid body lines.
23.
Jorgen Dreyer preferred to see the lions moving, as that gave him more visibility into their muscle structures.
24.
In 1925, Dreyer was commissioned by the widow of US Representative William P Borland to place a bas relief sculpture on the gravestone of Rep.
25.
Each sphinx weighed 20,000 pounds, and Jorgen Dreyer put the face of a woman on each.
26.
In 1931 Jorgen Dreyer sculpted some marble figures for the Rose Hill Cemetery Mausoleum, and in 1932 he installed a sculpture of the Goddess of Dawn for the new Hotel Phillips.
27.
In 1933 Jorgen Dreyer was again commissioned by Kansas City Life Insurance to complete a sculpture of Mercury.
28.
Jorgen Dreyer chose to copy the Giambologna "Flying Mercury" at the Bargello National Museum in Florence, Italy, but instead of using the breath of a zephyr to suspend Mercury, Jorgen Dreyer used a wave as he did with Goddess of Dawn.
29.
In 1935 Dreyer was commissioned to create a medal for the Golden Jubilee of Bishop Thomas F Lillis of Kansas City.
30.
In 1936 Jorgen Dreyer was awarded a commission for five bronze medallions that are in the lobby of the Jackson County Courthouse.
31.
Jorgen Dreyer was awarded a gold medal in sculpture at the 1912 Missouri State Fair in Sedalia.
32.
Jorgen Dreyer was made an Honorary Associate of the Kansas City chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
33.
Jorgen Dreyer died on November 17,1948, in Kansas City, Missouri, at the age of 70.
34.
Jorgen Dreyer was cremated at Elmwood Cemetery in Kansas City.