Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870-1952)

Rising Day and its companion work, Descending Night, were originally designed as fountain figures for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Surmounting enormous decorated columns, the pair of plaster figures were installed in the Court of the Universe, designed by the architectural firm, McKim, Mead and White. The building and its courtyard, known as the "meeting place of the hemi-spheres," stood at the northern end of the fairgrounds between the Palace of Agriculture and the Palace of Transportation. Following the exhibition, Weinman reproduced both works in two sizes, one measuring approximately 26 inches tall and the other approximately 57 inches.

Additional examples of Rising Day are in the collections of The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.