As a young man, Albert Wein studied at the Maryland Institute of Arts (now Maryland Institute College of Art, MICA), and decided to make the fine arts a career. Later, in 1946, he won the Prix de Rome, which allowed him to study in post-war Italy. Wein’s sturdy young man with a plow exhibits his engagement with classical sculpture. The somewhat brooding image could refer simultaneously to the enormous loss of life during World War II and hopes for a more fruitful future. Wein did not get around to casting the piece in bronze until late in life, when several original plasters were cast by the Tallix Foundry of Beacon, New York. Among them, To a God Unknown, then called simply Plowman, was cast in an edition of 12 in 1987.