WILLIAM RUEGER

SON OF LOUIS AND

SABINA RUEGER

BORN NOV. 30. 1857

RICHMOND. VA.

DIED JUNE 30. 1936

RIGHTEOUS. JUST BELOVED BY ALL

DOROTHEA W. VOCKE

BELOVED WIFE OF

WILLIAM RUEGER

BORN MARCH 10. 1859

VLOTHO GERMANY

DIED SEPT. 28. 1909

A DEVOTED WIFE, MOTHER AND FRIEND

THEY THAT LIE HERE REST IN PEACE

The winged angel monument in the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, was created for William and Dorothea Rueger.  Rueger’s father, Louis, was a successful hotelier and William joined him in the family business where they made their fortune.

The bronze sculpture of the angel was created by Austrian-born sculptor Julius Loester (April 12, 1861—July 20, 1923) the son of Josef and Wilhelmine Loester.  Loester took other commissions for funerary monuments.  For instance, two stunning examples of his work are bronze mausoleum doors he created.  The one below was created for the over-the-top Greek Revival Winter Mausoleum in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.  The middle figure’s face is reported to be a likeness of Emil Winter himself.  The figure to the left is Anubis, guide to the Underworld and protector of graves, and the figure to the right is Nephthys, who symbolizes the death experience and is protector of mummies.

The door below was created for the Waller Mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.  The door depicts a classically dressed and draped mourning figure standing with her head bowed, tentatively waiting in somber silence.

But He also received commissions for innovative and new sculptural projects.  An article titled, “Models in Miniature: A New Device of Architects to Prevent Disappointment of Owner,” in the New York Tribune from November 16, 1902, states that millionaires building palatial homes in Manhattan were often disappointed once the house was built because they didn’t really understand the plans they looked at when the blueprints were drawn up.  According to the article, innovative artist Julius C. Loester took the plans and constructed a plaster scale model of the house so the owners could see in 3-D what their house would look like thereby preventing disappointment.

He also won some major public commission work, such as the contract for the creation of the statuary for the Liberal Arts Building and the Horticulture Building at the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition of 1898 in Omaha, Nebraska.  He also sculpted a monumental piece, the Wisconsin State Memorial, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. 

He sculpted the Mothers Monument in Ashland, Pennsylvania, which is a 3-D likeness of Whistler’s famous painting titled, “Arrangement in Gray and Black” but became known as “Whistler’s Mother.”