Lewis & Clark Expedition
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
This relief shows the figures of Merriwether Lewis and William Clark looking down upon a valley from a high trail. Lewis looks through a telescope while Clark kneels. On horseback and carrying her baby, Sacajawea makes her way through a pass in the Rockies with the other members of the expedition.
Dispatched by President Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark journeyed between 1803 and 1806 to the Pacific Ocean and back. They were charged not only with mapping a water trade route across North America, but also with describing the indigenous peoples and natural wonders they encountered. They experienced formidable obstacles in their exploration of this country. Their valor and endurance is the focus of Warneke’s depiction.
Heinz Warneke was born in 1895 in Bremen, Germany, and immigrated to America in 1930. He began his study of art at the Kunstschule in Breman and received his master’s degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. In addition to his work for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Warneke completed commissions for the National Zoo and the National Cathedral, among others. He founded the Warneke School of Art in New York City, where he was head sculptor from 1940 to 1942.
