Ernst Friedrich August Rietschel (15 December 180421 January 1861) was a German

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Life

Rietschel was born in

Pulsnitz Pulsnitz () or Połčnica ( Upper Sorbian) is a town in the district of Bautzen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the small river Pulsnitz, 11 km southwest of Kamenz, and 24 km northeast of the centre of Dresden. ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

the third child of Friedrich Ehrgott Rietschel and his wife Caroline. From the age of 20 he became an art student at

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

, and from 1826 was a pupil of Rauch in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. He there gained an art studentship, and studied in Rome in 1827–28. After returning to Saxony, he soon brought himself into notice by a colossal statue of Frederick Augustus, King of Saxony; was elected a member of the academy of Dresden, and became one of the chief sculptors of his country. In 1832 he was elected to the Dresden professorship of sculpture, and had many foreign orders of merit conferred on him by the governments of different countries. He died in Dresden in 1861 aged 56. He is buried in the Trinitatisfriedhof, north-east of the city centre.

Family

He married three times. Firstly in 1832 to Albertine Trautscholdt. In 1836 he married Charlotte Carus daughter of

Carl Gustav Carus Carl Gustav Carus (3 January 1789 – 28 July 1869) was a German physiologist and painter, born in Leipzig, who played various roles during the Romantic era. A friend of the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, he was a many-sided man: a doctor, ...

. Finally in 1841 he married Marie Hand (1819–1847). From the third marriage he had a son .

Style and sculptures

Rietschel's style was very varied; he produced works imbued with much religious feeling, and to some extent he occupied the same place as a sculptor that Overbeck did in painting. Other important works by him were purely classical in style. He was specially famed for his portrait figures of eminent men, treated with much

idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected t ...

and dramatic vigour; among the latter class his chief works were colossal statues of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

and Schiller for the a monument in Weimar, of Weber for Dresden and of Lessing for

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

cast by Georg Howaldt. He also designed the Luther Monument in

Worms Worms may refer to: *Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs Places *Worms, Germany Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...

, Germany, and created two of its many statues, but died before it was completed. The principal among Rietschel's religious pieces of sculpture are the well-known Christ-Angel, and a life-sized Piet, executed for the king of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

. He also worked a great deal ''in rilievo'', and produced many graceful pieces, especially a fine series of

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s representing "Night and Morning" and "Noon and Twilight".

Gallery

File:Das Rietschel Denkmal Pulsnitz - Sachsen - Marktplatz.jpg, Rietschel Monument Pulsnitz - Saxony - Market Square Image:Braunschweig, Lessingdenkmal (Lessingplatz) (2).jpg, Lessing Monument (German: ''Lessing-Denkmal'') in

; cast by

Georg Ferdinand Howaldt Georg Ferdinand Howaldt (8 April 1802 – 19 January 1883) was a German sculptor. Biography Howaldt was born in Braunschweig as the son of the silversmith David Ferdinand Howaldt. He learned silversmithing and went to Nuremberg, where he b ...

. File:Martin-luther.JPG, Luther Monument in Washington, D.C., copy of Rietschel's work in Worms. Image:GoetheAndSchillerMonumentAtWeimar.jpg, Goethe–Schiller Monument in Weimar.

Notes

References

External links

Ernst Rietschel
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rietschel, Ernst 1804 births 1861 deaths People from Pulsnitz People from the Electorate of Saxony German sculptors German male sculptors 19th-century sculptors Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Dresden Academy of Fine Arts faculty