Otto Schmidt-Hofer (1873–1925) was a German sculptor who worked during the late 19th century and early 20th century. His work was primarily Neoclassical and Art Nouveau between 1893-1914 and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

from 1915 until his death in 1925.

Early life and education

Schmidt-Hofer was born 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 ...

, German Empire, in 1873. He studied at the Royal School of Art and also in the educational department at the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts, founded as the ''Deutsches Gewerbe-Museum zu Berlin'' in 1868.Heute mal Extremitäten
Tobias Timm, '' Die Zeit'', 31 August 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2016.

Career

He specialized in genre sculpture featuring working people doing normal everyday tasks and activities. He produced a number of sculptures of

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

s and masons at work, women harvesting fields with

scythe A scythe ( ) is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or harvesting crops. It is historically used to cut down or reap edible grains, before the process of threshing. The scythe has been largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor mac ...

s, and athletes. A number of the pieces he cast were of figures in the nude which was popular during the era he worked in. Schmidt-Hofer was a member of the National Association of Artists in Germany. He produced several Neoclassical statues in patinated bronze and held membership in the Reichsverband bildender Künstler in Germany. The very versatile Schmidt-Hofer was able to transition from works produced in the Art Nouveau era and pivot to doing a number of

sculptures during the latter portion of his career between 1915 and 1925. One sculpture, among his large career output of Art Deco sculptures, was ''The Entertainer''. The statue, cast in four variations – one being

chryselephantine Chryselephantine sculpture (from Greek grc, χρυσός, chrysós, gold, label=none, and grc, ελεφάντινος, elephántinos, ivory, label=none) is sculpture made with gold and ivory. Chryselephantine cult statues enjoyed high status ...

and the other being all bronze (and also clothed and nude) – was among the best of the work he produced. ''The Entertainer'' features a beautiful, svelte young lady wearing a jewel-laden costume in the midst of a stage performance. Schmidt-Hofer also produced a small version of the statue (about 6 inches high) that was mounted on a

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian green

onyx Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The ...

pin dish. The full array of Schmidt-Hofer's plentiful sculpting skills are displayed in this artwork which he completed .

Death and legacy

Schmidt-Hofer died in

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

, in 1925. Along with other German sculptors of the period such as Iffland,

Preiss Preiss is a Germanic surname, and may refer to: * Ferdinand Preiss (1882–1943), German sculptor * Balthazar Preiss (1765-1850), Austrian naturalist * Ludwig Preiss (1811–1883), German naturalist * Wolfgang Preiss (1910–2002), German actor * ...

, and Schmidt-Felling, Schmidt-Hofer takes his rightful place as one of the premier Neoclassical, Art Deco, and Art Nouveau sculptors that Germany has ever produced.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt-Hofer, Otto 19th-century German sculptors German male sculptors 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists Art Deco sculptors Artists from Berlin 1873 births 1925 deaths