Photo: Barbara Cole
David Oppenheimer - photo by Barbara Cole
Beach Avenue entrance to Stanley Park
Stanley Park
Opposite the Parks Board Office
Other
1911
Bronze
Memorial or monument
In place
City of Vancouver
CommemorativeCoal Harbour/West End Quadrant
Description of work
A Heritage Monument, this bronze bust commemmorates Vancouver's second mayor (1888-92).
Artist statement
In the fall of 1909 a committee was formed to build a memorial to David Oppenheimer, former Mayor of Vancouver. Oppenheimer was an entrepreneur from Germany and served four 1-year terms as Mayor. He donated land for city parks and for the Rogers sugar refinery. The memorial committee planned to hire Augustus St. Gaudens to build a memorial gate to connect Stanley Park to the City in honour of Oppenheimer but they found out St. Gaudens was dead. Charles Marega was new to Vancouver and had his first exhibition here with the Studio Club in October of 1909, showing small wax figures. Art critic Felix Penne (Francis Bursill) wrote in Vancouver World, "These have the right feeling and directness of life and there is every indication the sculptor is capable of broader and more ambitious work - which I shall be glad to see. Soon Vancouver will not have to propose dead sculptors to design memorials - there are and will be living and capable sculptors nearer home than on the other bank of the Styx.." The original budget for the project was $50,000, but by the time Marega was commissioned in 1910, the project had become a bust for $4500, of which Marega was paid $3600 and the balance paid for an elaborate unveiling ceremony. (BC Historical News 8:22-26, June 1975)
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