Charles Henry Niehaus was among the foremost monumental sculptors of his generation. As a youth he worked as a stonecutter and a carver before studying at the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati. Using his savings, in 1877 he went to Munich, where he studied for three and a half years at the Royal Academy of the Fine Arts, winning a gold medal for a sculptural composition. After visiting art collections in Italy, France, and England, he located in Manchester, England, where he executed several busts. He returned to Cincinnati in 1881. Niehaus received two important commissions for statues of the recently assassinated President Garfield, one to be erected in Cincinnati and the other, commissioned by the state of Ohio, intended for the Capitol in Washington. Shortly afterward the state awarded him a second commission, for a statue of former governor William Allen, also for the Capitol. To carve the two marble sculptures for the state, he went to Rome, remaining for two years. After returning to America in 1885, he opened a studio in New York, after that his home.

Niehaus was active as both a portrait sculptor and monumental sculptor, winning numerous national competitions and many honors. His practice increased greatly after the success of his monument to Doctor Samuel Hahnemann in Scott Circle, Washington, unveiled in 1900.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rufus R. Wilson, "Eminent American Artists, v -- Charles Henry Niehaus," Monthly Illustrator and Home and Country 12 (June 1896): 390-400 § Regina Armstrong, The Sculpture of Charles Henry Niehaus (New York: De Vinne Press, 1902) § Charles H. Caffin, American Masters of Sculpture (New York: Doubleday, Page, 1903), pp. 119-28 § "Charles Henry Niehaus A.N.A., American Sculptor," International Studio 29 (August 1906): 104-11 § Taft 1930, pp. 394404, with bibliography.