Johann Joseph Fritz von Miller, known as Fritz von Miller (11 November 1840 – 29 December 1921) was a German bronze caster,

goldsmith A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), pl ...

and sculptor.

Life

Fritz von Miller, born in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, was one of the 14 children of

Ferdinand von Miller Ferdinand von Miller (18 October 1813 – 11 February 1887) was a German artisan who is noted for his furtherance of bronze founding. Biography Von Miller was born in Fürstenfeldbruck. After a sojourn at the academy in Munich and a preliminar ...

, creator of the

Bavaria statue ''Bavaria'' is the name given to a monumental, bronze sand-cast 19th-century statue in Munich, southern Germany. It is a female personification of the Bavarian homeland, and by extension its strength and glory. The statue is part of an ensemb ...

in the centre of Munich. His brothers included

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 Oskar von Miller (7 May 1855 – 9 April 1934) was a German engineer and founder of the Deutsches Museum, a large museum of technology and science in Munich. Biography Born in Munich into an Upper Bavarian family from Aichach, he was the son of ...

and Wilhelm von Miller (18481899) He studied at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (german: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, ...

, and the

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

. He taught from 1868 to 1912 at the Königliche Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich. He was a prolific maker of small objets d'art and artistic domestic items, including pens and electric light fittings. One of his larger projects, on which he collaborated with his brother Ferdinand, was the

Tyler Davidson Fountain The Tyler Davidson Fountain or ''The Genius of Water'' is a statue and fountain located in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is regarded as the city's symbol and one of the area's most-visited attractions. It was dedicated in 1871 and is the centerpiece of ...

, built in 1871 in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. Both Fritz and Ferdinand supported their brother Oskar financially when he wanted to open his own office in 1887. In 1875 Fritz von Miller married Rosina Theresia Anna Sedlmayr, a descendant of the brewer . Thanks to this marriage he inherited a fortune in 1891. In 1894 he bought and renovated the Kainzenhof in Bad Wiessee; in 1904 he was involved in the establishment of the church-building society in Bad Wiessee. The design for the church of the

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

(''Mariae Himmelfahrt''), which was eventually dedicated in 1926, was produced by his son, the architect Rupert von Miller. Fritz was also much involved with St. Benno's Church in Neuhausen, founded in 1850 by his father. The

Neo-Romanesque Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

church includes an elaborate chapel in honour of the Miller family, for which Fritz's son Rupert sculpted a bust of him. Fritz died in Munich. The ''Fritz-von-Miller-Weg'' in Bad Wiessee is named after him, and another von Miller family memorial chapel, also in a Neo-Romanesque style, is located there. Wilhelm Neu und andere: ''Denkmäler in Bayern. Oberbayern''. Oldenbourg 1986, , p. 367 He is buried in the family grave in the in the Munich suburb of Neuhausen.

Notes and references

Bibliography

Thieme-Becker Thieme-Becker is a German biographical dictionary of artists. Thieme-Becker The dictionary was begun under the editorship of Ulrich Thieme (1865–1922) (volumes one to fifteen) and Felix Becker (1864–1928) (volumes one to four). It was complet ...

, Bd. 24, 1930, p. 583.

External links

Newsletter of St. Benno's Church, Munich, 2006, containing article on the Miller family chapel

Metropolitan Museum, New York: photo of Fritz von Miller
---- {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Fritz Von 1840 births 1921 deaths 19th-century German people 20th-century German people 19th-century sculptors 20th-century sculptors German sculptors German male sculptors Bavarian nobility Artists from Munich Von Miller family