3 Framed Rome Watercolors / Signed "Weppner" 1936/ Robert A.Weppner FAAR

A quick dash into H for H Restore scored me these 3 nicely framed watercolors of famous Roman landmarks and views. Lately they have started to put art work in canvas bins that you can sort through. So I always check. All three are framed in polished aluminum frames with cocoa colored mattes and measure roughly 18" x20 " One is a bit taller the other a bit shorter. The two landmarks are the "Pantheon" and "The Vatican" the other a hill side view of a town with it's tile roof villas. They are all signed by the same artist with only a last name " Weppner" and dated 1936. My favorite are the "Pantheon" and "The Vatican". The landscape is nice but the detail and control of the watercolor medium in rendering the architecture shows a very talented artist. The pictures were taken outside so reflections in the glass were hard to reduce. -Mike-

Note : Thanks to mp.kunst for pointing me in the right direction. Pretty sure this is our man and artist.

ROBERT A. WEPPNER 1906-1994 / Courtesy of "The Washington Post"

Robert A. Weppner Jr., 88, a retired architect with the D.C. Department of Public Works who also had practiced his profession privately and for other government agencies, died of cancer Dec. 20 at Hospice of Washington. He lived in Chevy Chase.
Mr. Weppner was born in Cleveland. He came to Washington as a student at Catholic University, where he graduated with a degree in architecture in 1929. He later studied in Rome as a fellow of the American Academy in 1936. In the 1930s, he was architectural draftsman for various companies in Washington and for the War Department, the forerunner of the Department of the Army. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Forces and commanded a photo intelligence unit in Europe. His military decorations included the Bronze Star. After the war, Mr. Weppner returned to Washington and became an architect with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he worked for a Baltimore architectural company on several state and federal projects, including Baltimore Veterans Hospital. He designed the presidential reviewing stands for the inaugurations of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 and 1957 and of Ronald Reagan in 1981. Other projects included work on remodeling the Mayflower Hotel and additions to the Burning Tree Club. In 1974, Mr. Weppner joined what is now the D.C. Department of Public Works as project manager. He retired in 1985. Mr. Weppner was also a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

The American Academy in Rome
The American Academy in Rome supports innovative artists, writers, and scholars living and working together in a dynamic international community. Each spring, the Academy awards the Rome Prize and Italian Fellowship to a select group of artists and scholars, after an application and juried process that begins in the previous fall. The winners are invited to Rome to pursue their work in an atmosphere conducive to intellectual and artistic freedom and interdisciplinary exchange. The encounter with Rome represents now, as it has done since 1894, something unique: a chance for artists and scholars to spend significant time working in one of the oldest, most cosmopolitan cities in the world. The richness of Rome’s artistic and cultural legacy and its power to stimulate creative thinking served as the initial impetus for the Academy’s founding. Today, this tradition lives on, transformed by the dynamism of the Academy’s constantly evolving community. In addition to Rome Prize and Italian Fellows, the community includes invited Residents, Visiting Artists and Scholars, as well as participants in AAR’s academic Summer Program.
So this accounts for me finding them in Ohio since he has born in Cleveland he probably had family here that donated the watercolors. -Mike-