Eduard van der Nüll (9 January 1812 (baptized) – 4 April 1868) was an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n architect, who was one of the great masters in the
historicist
Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...
style of Vienna's
Ringstrasse
The Vienna Ring Road (german: Ringstraße, lit. ''ring road'') is a 5.3 km (3.3 mi) circular grand boulevard that serves as a ring road around the historic Innere Stadt (Inner Town) district of Vienna, Austria. The road is located on sites wher ...
.
[
''Architectural Theory: An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870'',
Harry Francis Mallgrave, 2005, p.533, Google-Books webpage:
]
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Life and work
Eduard van der Nüll was born and died in Vienna. After studying at the
Vienna Polytechnical Institute[ (alongside, among others, Peter von Nobile, Paul Wilhelm Eduard Sprenger and ]Carl Roesner
Carl Roesner (19 June 1804, Vienna - 13 July 1869, Steyr) was an Austrian architect.
Life
He studied architecture in Vienna and Rome. In 1826, he began his work as a proofreader for lectures at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and, in 1835, bec ...
), he and his friend August Sicard von Sicardsburg
August Sicard von Sicardsburg (6 December 1813 – 11 June 1868) was an Austrian architect. He is best remembered as the co-architect of the Vienna State Opera, together with Eduard van der Nüll.
Sicardsburg was born in Buda. He studied archi ...
made extensive trips through Western Europe for purposes of study. In 1844, he became a professor at the Academy with a new Chair created for him in ''Perspektive und Ornamentik'' (perspective and ornamentation).
He remained associated with Sicardsburg for life, in a professional and artistic symbiosis. While Sicardsburg handled primarily practical and technical questions, van der Nüll was responsible for issues of decoration and aesthetics. Their first joint project was in 1847, creating the Carltheater
The Carltheater was a theatre in Vienna. It was in the suburbs in Leopoldstadt at Praterstraße 31 (at that time called Jägerzeile).
It was the successor to the Leopoldstädter Theater. After a series of financial difficulties, that theater had ...
in Vienna-Leopoldstadt
Leopoldstadt (; bar, Leopoidstod, "Leopold-Town") is the 2nd municipal district of Vienna (german: 2. Bezirk) in Austria. there are 103,233 inhabitants over . It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Brigittenau (20th distr ...
(since destroyed). In the 1850s they added some sections to the Vienna Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
, such as the command building whilst Van der Nüll was solely responsible for the interior design of the Altlerchefelder Parish Church, the most important church project of the decade.
Their most important joint project, however, was the Vienna Court Opera (Wiener Staatsoper
The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August S ...
) in the style of the Neo-Renaissance
Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...
, during 1861–1869, built as the first public building along the Vienna Ringstrasse
The Vienna Ring Road (german: Ringstraße, lit. ''ring road'') is a 5.3 km (3.3 mi) circular grand boulevard that serves as a ring road around the historic Innere Stadt (Inner Town) district of Vienna, Austria. The road is located on sites wher ...
. In 1860, the project had been submitted to competition and won by the two architects.
Their design failed to match the monumentality of the Heinrichshof opposite (destroyed in World War II, and in 1955 replaced by the Opernringhof). Criticism from both the Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
and a press campaign against the pair of architects described the disappointment of the Viennese public and suggested that the building was merely a half-success. After the street level in front of the opera house was raised by a metre, the opera was described as the "sunken chest" and - in analogy to the military disaster of 1866 - "the Königgratz of Construction".
Eduard van der Nüll was deeply troubled by the criticism and hanged himself on 4 April 1868. His partner Sicardsburg died nearly 10 weeks later, diagnosed with tuberculosis. It was said that the Emperor had been so shocked by the suicide of Eduard van der Nüll, that from then on he responded to all new art phenomena with the standard phrase, "It was very beautiful, I liked it a lot".
Eduard van der Nüll was buried in an honorary grave in Vienna's Central Cemetery (Group 32 A, No. 5). In 1875, the Van-der-Nüll street in the Favoriten
Favoriten (; Central Bavarian: ''Favoritn''), the 10th district of Vienna, Austria (german: 10. Bezirk, Favoriten), is located south of the central districts. It is south of Innere Stadt, Wieden and Margareten. Favoriten is a heavily populat ...
District of Vienna was named after him.
List of works
''Alone:''
* Altlerchenfelder Pfarrkirche (church), 1848–1861
* Monument for Archduke Karl of Austria-Teschen at Heldenplatz
Heldenplatz (german: Heroes' Square) is a public space in front of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. Located in the Innere Stadt borough, the President of Austria resides in the adjoining Hofburg wing, while the Federal Chancellery is on adj ...
, 1859.
* Monument for Prince Eugen of Savoy
Eugen is a masculine given name which may refer to:
* Archduke Eugen of Austria (1863–1954), last Habsburg Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order from 1894 to 1923
* Prince Eugen, Duke of Närke (1865–1947), Swedish painter, art collector, and pat ...
at Heldenplatz
Heldenplatz (german: Heroes' Square) is a public space in front of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. Located in the Innere Stadt borough, the President of Austria resides in the adjoining Hofburg wing, while the Federal Chancellery is on adj ...
, 1856.
''Along with August Sicard von Sicardsburg
August Sicard von Sicardsburg (6 December 1813 – 11 June 1868) was an Austrian architect. He is best remembered as the co-architect of the Vienna State Opera, together with Eduard van der Nüll.
Sicardsburg was born in Buda. He studied archi ...
:''
* Schutzengelbrunnen (fountain), 1843–1846
* Sophienbad, 1845
* Carltheater
The Carltheater was a theatre in Vienna. It was in the suburbs in Leopoldstadt at Praterstraße 31 (at that time called Jägerzeile).
It was the successor to the Leopoldstädter Theater. After a series of financial difficulties, that theater had ...
, 1846–1847
* Arsenal of Vienna, 1849–1855
* Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August S ...
, 1861–1869
* Haas-Haus, 1866–1868 (now site of the unrelated Haas-Haus
The Haas House is a building in Vienna at the Stock-im-Eisen-Platz.
Designed by the Austrian architect Hans Hollein, it is a building in the postmodernist style and was completed in 1990. The use of the Haas-Haus is divided between retail and a ...
)
* Palais Larisch-Mönich, 1867–1868
* Industriepalast on the occasion of the World Exposition of 1873.
Notes
External links
*
planet-vienna.com - Eduard van der Nüll
(German)
Nüll, Eduard van der
in "Constant von Wurzbach
Constantin Wurzbach Ritter von Tannenberg (11 April 1818 – 17 August 1893) was an Austrian biographer, lexicographer and author.
Biography
He was born in Laibach, Carniola (present-day Ljubljana, Slovenia).He later went on to complete a co ...
", ''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich'' (Biographical Dictionary of Kaiser Austria), Volume 20, Vienna 1869.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuell, Eduard van der
19th-century Austrian people
Artists from Vienna
Austrian people of Dutch descent
TU Wien alumni
Suicides by hanging in Austria
1812 births
1868 deaths
19th-century Austrian architects
Historicist architects
Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery