John Walz: Savannah's Great Sculptor

3/10/2017

Telfair Museum of Art Statues

Savannah has had many great sculptors that have produced works for Savannah. Daniel Chester French (Lincoln Memorial), Felix de Weldon (Iwo Jima Monument), and Alexander Doyle (Confederate General’s monuments for Lee, Johnston, and Beauregard in New Orleans) are examples of sculptors who have work in Savannah. But John Walz was probably the greatest sculptor that called Savannah home. Walz was born in Wuttemberg, Germany on August 31, 1844. His parents died when he was thirteen and he moved to Philadelphia to be with his sister. He worked in various stone quarries in Philadelphia before deciding he wanted to learn to sculpt. He went to study in Paris and Vienna.

It was in Vienna that fate was to bring him to Savannah. He was studying with Oskar Victor Tilgner when the new and first director of the Telfair Museum Carl Brandt came to Tilgner’s studio to commission four statues for the new art museum. Brand wanted statues of iconic artists to stand outside the Telfair Museum of Art. It is believed as was custom of students in studios Walz with and for Tilgner worked on the Phidias, Michaelangelo, and Rembrandt statues. The Raphael statue was the work of Walz alone. Walz would accompany the statues to Savannah from Vienna to ensure their proper set up. Once here he would make Savannah his home.

From his studio in Savannah Walz made a national reputation through his fine workmanship. Museums would collect his work. He would exhibit his work 1886 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia where he won a prestigious award. Savannah would be infused with his work throughout. Savannah’s cemeteries especially become the homes of his various sculptures. Bonaventure Cemetery has over eighty of his works there. The most famous is his legendary statue ‘Little Gracie’. Little Gracie Watson was the only child of her parents. Her father was manager of the Pulaski Hotels. She was a beautiful and charming little girl who captured the hearts of all the guests. Two days before Easter, in April 1889, Gracie died of pneumonia at the age of six. In 1890, Walz, carved from a photograph of her a life-sized, delicately detailed marble statue.

Walz studio would have too much work for one man and he brought on Antonio Alliffi who would carve pieces for the ceiling in the Lucas Theater among other things. Many Savannahians have pieces of his work in their private collections. Walz died in November 24, 1922. He is buried in Bonaventure Cemetery. Oddly there is no headstone at his gravesite, yet his work can be found throughout the Cemetery.

Despite the absence of a marker the cemetery made a John Walz Memorial Garden in 2001. Today after a refurbishing of the garden in 2011 the 4,000 square foot garden features 80 different plants. The studio where he once created his masterpieces on Liberty Street is now a vacation rental. As we travel around Savannah John Walz works surround us and act as a gravestone of an artist that once called Savannah home.