Ferdinand von Miller (18 October 1813 – 11 February 1887) was a German artisan who is noted for his furtherance of
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
founding.
Biography
Von Miller was born in
Fürstenfeldbruck
Fürstenfeldbruck () is a town in Bavaria, Germany, located 32 kilometres west of Munich. It is the capital of the district of Fürstenfeldbruck. it has a population of 35,494. Since the 1930s, Fürstenfeldbruck has had an air force base.
Th ...
.
After a sojourn at the academy in Munich and a preliminary engagement at the royal brass foundry, Miller traveled to Paris in 1833, where he learnt from Soyer and Blus the varied technique necessary for bronze working. He also visited England and the
Netherlands, and after his return to Munich worked under his teacher and uncle Stiglmayr, whom the
Crown Prince Ludwig had induced to devote himself to bronze foundry work and to the establishment of the Munich foundry as a state institution. Miller soon took his uncle's place, and upon the death of the latter was appointed inspector of the workshop. He soon won for it a worldwide reputation, and for himself a fortune and position of influence.
The casting of the
Bavaria statue (1844–55) especially brought him fame. Commissions came to him from far and near. He cast the statue of
Herder
A herder is a pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic or transhumant management of stock, or with common land grazing. ...
, and the
double statue of Goethe and Schiller, for
Weimar, and also the figures of Duke Eberhard in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
, of
Berzelius in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
and two Washington monuments, by Mills in
Boston and Crawford in
Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
, image_map =
, mapsize = 250 px
, map_caption = Location within Virginia
, pushpin_map = Virginia#USA
, pushpin_label = Richmond
, pushpin_m ...
. He also cast the gate of the
Capitol in Washington. In 1874 Miller was elected to the directorate of the society of art industries. The Munich exhibition of art and crafts in 1876 was reportedly largely Miller's work. He sought to win over artists to a general exhibition of German art in alliance with handicrafts. Drawing rooms, cabinets, boudoirs, sitting rooms and chapels were arranged so as to form in their grouping a whole by having art and trade appliances put into the place for which they were intended. Where this was not possible, a partition or a wall would be placed with picturesque effect in some adjoining room. Miller established a center of exhibition and sale for the society, and procured himself a home especially for the social intercourse of artists and art craftsmen.
In 1840 he married Anna Pösl (1815–1890), daughter of the Chancellor of the regional government of
Landshut
Landshut (; bar, Landshuad) is a town in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also t ...
, who bore him 14 children, including
Ferdinand Freiherr von Miller
Ferdinand Miller, from 1875 von Miller and from 1912 Freiherr von Miller (8 June 1842 – 18 December 1929) was an ore caster, sculptor and director of the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (Akademie der Bildenden Künste München). He also held a ...
,
Oskar von Miller and
Fritz von Miller
Johann Joseph Fritz von Miller, known as Fritz von Miller (11 November 1840 – 29 December 1921) was a German bronze caster, goldsmith and sculptor.
Life
Fritz von Miller, born in Munich, was one of the 14 children of Ferdinand von Miller, ...
. He died in Munich, and was buried in the
Alter Südfriedhof
The Alter Südfriedhof (''Old South Cemetery'') also known as "Alter Südlicher Friedhof" is a cemetery in Munich, Germany. It was founded by Duke Albrecht V as a plague cemetery in 1563 about half a kilometer south of the Sendlinger Ga ...
in the same city.
Image gallery
File:Statue of Thomas Church Brownell at Trinity College CT.jpg, Statue of Thomas Church Brownell at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
Truman H. Bartlett
Truman Howe Bartlett (1835–1922), also known as T. H. Bartlett, was an American sculptor, and father to sculptor Paul Wayland Bartlett.
Bartlett was born in Dorset, Vermont, studied under Robert Eberhard Launitz in New York City and subse ...
in 1871; sculpted by Ferdinand von Miller in 1872).
Ferdinand von Miller (the younger) and Oskar von Miller
Ferdinand von Miller's son
Ferdinand (1842–1929) followed in his father's footsteps and is known in the United States for some of the figures on the
Tyler Davidson Fountain in Cincinnati (at the unveiling on October 6, 1871, at which he was honored). He also created the statues of
Shakespeare,
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
and
Alexander von Humboldt in
Tower Grove Park
Tower Grove Park is a municipal park in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Most of its land was donated to the city by Henry Shaw in 1868. It is on 289 acres (1.17 km²) adjacent to the Missouri Botanical Garden, another of Shaw's legacies. It ...
of St. Louis
[McCue, George, Photographs by David Finn and Amy Binder, ‘’Sculpture City: St. Louis, Sculpture in the “Gateway to the West”’’ Hudson Hills Press NY and Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, 1988 pp. 42-45] and of
J. Marion Sims in New York. Another son of Ferdinand von Miller was
Oskar von Miller, who became an engineer and founder of the
Deutsches Museum, Munich.
Sources
*
* cites:
**Pecht, ''Geschichte der Münchener Kunst'' (Munich, 1888);
**Müller, ''Universal-Handbuch von München'';
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, F
1813 births
1887 deaths
Bavarian nobility
People from Fürstenfeldbruck (district)
People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
German Roman Catholics
Members of the Bavarian Chamber of Deputies
Members of the 2nd Reichstag of the German Empire
Members of the 3rd Reichstag of the German Empire
Members of the 4th Reichstag of the German Empire
German metallurgists
German untitled nobility
Bronzeware
Foundries in Germany
Burials at the Alter Südfriedhof
Engineers from Bavaria
Von Miller family