Bernhard Kutzer

Bernhard Kutzer (Czech and Polish: Bernard Kutzer ; born June 27, 1794 in Niedergrund , Austrian Silesia ; † December 12, 1864 in Obergrund , Austrian Silesia) was a Silesian sculptor and painter of the late Baroque and founder of the Kutzer Sculpture Workshop. He mainly worked with wood, and because of the precision of his work, he was called the Silesian Riemenschneider . He also made cast iron crosses.

Life

Kutzer was one of 14 children of the Niedergrund miller Johann Nepomuk Kutzer and his wife Theresia, nee. Jokish. After showing his artistic talent as a carver as a child, his parents sent him to an apprenticeship with the Gurschdorf sculptor Keller when he was twelve . He campaigned for Prince Bishop Joseph Christian Franz zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein to finance studies for his talented apprentice. However, these plans were dashed by an illness of Kutz and the death of the prince-bishop. Kutzer then perfected his artistic skills autodidactically by studying the works of the great Dutch and Italian masters. He built a house in upper ground no. 34 in which he opened his own workshop. There he trained his stepbrothers Cyrill and Patricius Kasimir and then transferred the business affairs of the workshop to the latter. His marriage to Josefa Franziska Proske in 1825 resulted in ten children. He trained his sons Zenobius, Johann Felix, Bernhard, Reinhold and Rafael to be sculptors. Furthermore worked in Kutzer's workshop a. a. the painters and sculptors Josef Kriesten, Anton Weese and Franz Portsche. In 1839 he met Ludwig Schwanthaler , who from January to October 1839 sought to cure himself from his severe gout disease in Bad Graefenberg . Another influence on Kutzers was an encounter with Herman Wilhelm Bissen in Bad Graefenberg. After Kutzer's death, his son Reinhold ( Raimund ) took over his father's workshop in Obergrund. The house of the Kutzer family in Horní Údolí ( Obergrund ) was demolished in 1960.

Works (selection)

Interior of the Church of St. Michael in Vrbno pod Pradědem (1837–1844)
Crucifixion group in Skorošice (1847–1849)
Equipment of the pilgrimage chapel of St. Anne in Horní Údolí
Figure of the sea shepherd Gill in Rejvíz (not preserved)
Canopy altars for the churches in Bruntál , Dolní Dlouhá Loučka , Hnojice and Zlaté Hory
neo-Gothic high altar in the parish church of St. John in Paczków
Main altar of the Church of the Assumption in Niepaszyce (1858)

Main altar of the Church of Our Lady in Rejvíz

Main altar of the parish church of St. Andrew in Ujazd

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Kutzer, Bernhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kutzer, Bernard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Silesian sculptor and painter
DATE OF BIRTH	June 27, 1794
PLACE OF BIRTH	Low ground
DATE OF DEATH	December 12, 1864
Place of death	Aboveground