If you had a chance to catch our recent talk on Esherick’s monumental sculpture Oblivion this past November, you might remember our staff put out an inquiry to the world: have you seen another, smaller version of this walnut sculpture? When digging into the history of this piece through records in our special collections and archives, a small note in the sculpture’s card catalog stood out: “copy–walnut—33” high—1937.” The original sculpture made in 1934 out of a single log of black walnut is over six feet tall. What is this note talking about? A copy of Oblivion not even three feet tall? There is indeed another, smaller version of Oblivion out there in the world. In fact, there are at least two!
What’s the deal with these little Oblivions? In January 1936 Oblivion was sent to the Whitney Museum of American Art for the Second Biennial Exhibition of Sculpture and Prints. The sculpture was well received by critics, and it garnered attention from some new potential clients. The following fall, Wharton Esherick received a letter on The Atlantic Monthly letterhead from the journalist Christine Lowell who had seen Oblivion at the Whitney earlier that year. “I had the pleasure of seeing OBLIVION at the Whitney Museum… last winter. I am wondering if this has ever been executed in a smaller size. Will you be so kind as to let me hear from you?” Lowell wrote to Esherick. Presumably, the $1,500 price and sheet size of Esherick’s Oblivion made purchasing it for her home fairly prohibitive.
This correspondence helps shed light on the smaller version of Oblivion referenced in the original sculpture’s card catalog entry. Lowell later inquired whether there might be further requests for smaller copies of Oblivions that could help lower the cost of labor for Esherick to reduce the price she’d have to pay. We now know that further copies were in fact made – and where another one of these small sculptures first landed: in Curtis Bok’s house. It’s unclear whether this patron had specifically requested a smaller copy of Oblivion from Esherick, or whether Esherick went ahead to have multiple copies made knowing he could successfully shop them around to clients like Curtis Bok, who were already making substantial investments in Esherick’s practice. Esherick was already undertaking a major intervention on Bok’s house, so what harm could tacking on one more sculpture do?
Records indicate that Esherick did not make this smaller copy of Oblivion himself. Instead, the artist contracted this work out to a gentleman only referred to in our archives as “Von Hebel.” Based upon census research, it appears that this gentleman might be an individual named Everhardus Von Hebel, a Dutch immigrant living in the Olney section of Philadelphia who, in 1930, was working as a modeler in a sculpture shop. There is also a Von Hebel who is discussed in an online coin collectors forum who eventually worked as an engraver for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. Might they be the same individual?
Von Hebel’s connection to Esherick still remains unclear. However, we do know that Von Hebel executed at least two smaller versions of Esherick’s original piece in walnut that are less than half the size of the original. Esherick often had pieces cast in bronze, and even executed a smaller version of his sculpture Darling for his friend Jasper Deeter at the Hedgerow Theatre. However, it’s unusual for Esherick to leave this type of reproduction work to a contractor, especially knowing copies were not going to be executed with a mold from the original. Because Esherick was in the thick of the Bok House commission—one of the largest projects of the artist’s lifetime—it’s likely he didn’t have the time at this juncture in his career to make sculpture copies. However, the economic outlook during these Depression decades may have meant that selling copies of Oblivion wasn’t an opportunity Esherick would pass on.
Unfortunately, there are no photographs that show any copies of Oblivion that WEM staff is currently aware of. However, knowing there are two copies of Oblivion out there rather than just one doubles our odds! So, we ask again: have you seen any little Oblivions out there in the world? If so, we’d love to learn more!
Post written by Public Programs and Collections Manager, Ethan Snyder
March 2026