At times, walking through the cemeteries in Forest Park can feel like a visit to an art museum. Visitors find themselves surrounded by beautiful monuments and headstones with intricate engravings and poignant funerary imagery. One piece of sculpture adorning a grave in Jewish Waldheim is particularly moving, as the artist, of some renown during his lifetime, is the deceased.
David G. Henner was born in Russia in 1898. As a nine-year old he traveled with his mother and brothers to the U.S., to join their father who had already been working in the U.S. for a year as a plumber. At just 20 years of age, Henner found a job as a botanist with the Field Museum. In 1920, he was using his artistic talents to sculpt models of plants at the museum in the Stanley Field Plant Reproduction Lab. (The museum as we now know it opened to the public in 1921 — it was under construction from 1915 to 1921. Before that it was located in the Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 Exposition, which later became the Museum of Science and Industry.)
A 1924 photo captures Henner at his desk at the Field Museum, carefully creating a replica of foliage for the Couroupita (Cannon Ball Tree). An enameled copy of the photo is on his headstone, as well as in a current display in the museum. Henner’s reproductions were based on specimens gathered during the Stanley Field Guiana (now called Guyana) Expedition of 1922, led by Bror Eric Dahlgren. The Cannon Ball Tree was such an important specimen that it is still one of the first things visitors see when they enter the Field’s Plants of the World Exhibit.
Henner not only applied his skills at the Field Museum, he was a sculptor listed in the “Who Was Who In American Art” by Peter Falk. He is credited with exhibiting works at the Art Institute of Chicago.
It is one of Henner’s own sculptures, “Destiny,” which is displayed on his headstone. The piece portrays an artist wearing what looks like a toga, completing a sculpture of his own. Perhaps it is a self-portrait of sorts. It is a haunting piece, especially knowing that the artist died so young.
Tragically, Henner drowned in 1925 in an accident in Michigan City, Indiana at Waverly Beach (now a part of Indiana Dunes). He had been on a vacation with two friends and entered rough waters, ignoring warnings from the guards. His body washed ashore later in the day.
It is easy to spot Henner’s artwork in Jewish Waldheim when driving along Greenberg Road, as the green patina of the sculpture stands out from the surrounding grey granite. In the lower right corner of the work, the artist has signed his name.
David Henner may be gone, but the sculptures he created remain to inspire and educate visitors to both the cemetery and the Field Museum.
References: Chicago Tribune, Field Museum.org, askart.com, Woods and Forest Botany at Field Museum of Natural History, Undereverytombsone.blogspot.com