Emil Hopfgarten

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Emil Hopfgarten, portrait drawn by Michael Stohl , Rome 1844
Emil Hopfgarten

Emil Alexander Hopfgarten (born April 3, 1821 in Berlin ; † September 12, 1856 in Biebrich ) is the most famous Wiesbaden sculptor of the 19th century.

Live and act

The son of the Berlin ore caster Johann Ludwig Heinrich Hopfgarten († 1844), who among other things carried out orders from Christian Daniel Rauch , first learned the art of foundry in his father's workshop and the royal iron foundry in Berlin . He then studied sculpture with Ludwig Wichmann at the Berlin Academy of Arts . In 1840 he moved to Rome, where his uncle Wilhelm Hopfgarten owned a workshop. However, Emil Hopfgarten was more drawn to sculpture and so he joined Emil Wolff's studio . After further study visits to Naples and Florence, Hopfgarten returned to Berlin in 1843 and married here two years later. During this time, several orders from King Friedrich Wilhelm IV for the Berlin Palace fell .

The rosette with Hopfgarten's head of Christ, Speyer Cathedral , westwork

When the Nassau Duke Adolph visited the Prussian King in Berlin, he got to know Hopfgarten and offered him the opportunity to work for him in Biebrich, which at that time was still independent from Wiesbaden . Since Hopfgarten did not want to take over his father's workshop, he accepted the offer and set up a studio near Biebrich Castle , in the so-called Mosburg . In the same year (1848) Hopfgarten was commissioned to create a tomb for the Grand Duchess Elisabeth , who came from Russia and who would later become Duchess of Nassau, who died young . As thanks for the creation of Elisabeth's sarcophagus in the Russian Orthodox Church on the Neroberg , Tsar Nicholas I , Elisabeth's uncle, awarded him the Imperial Order of Stanislaus 2nd class.

Other works include a. the Christ and Evangelist group for the Wiesbaden market church , which he could no longer complete (his student Scipione Jardellea finally completed the group). The artist also created the central Christ head on the rosette of the window on the westwork of the Speyer Cathedral on behalf of the Duke of Nassau . Due to the success of his work, Hopfgarten received the honorary title of professor from Herzog Adolph.

Since July 1856 he had been seriously ill with a lung disease and even a stay at a spa did not bring any improvement. The sculptor died just two months later at the age of only 35. Hopfgarten's grave is in the cemetery in Wiesbaden-Biebrich .

Works

  • approx. 1844 Figure of the Apostle Jakobus for the St. Jacobi-Kirche Berlin More pictures on the website of the ev. parish of St. Jacobi-Luisenstadt

literature

  • Deutsches Kunstblatt 7 (1856), No. 44, October 30, 1856, p. 381 f. (Nekrolog) digitized version
  • Corinna Pfaff: The sculptural work of Emil Hopfgarten (1821-1856) in Wiesbaden . Master's thesis at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz 1996
  • Lothar Lüstner: Emil Hopfgarten. An immortelle wreath on the grave of a premature deceased . Plaum publishing house, Wiesbaden 1908
  • Gottfried Kiesow: Architectural Guide Wiesbaden. The city of historicism . German Foundation for Monument Protection, Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-936942-71-4 (with 1 DVD)

Web links

Commons : Emil Hopfgarten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. The "Deutsche Kunstblatt" 7 (1856), p. 381, states April 3rd as the birthday in the Nekrolog, so it was changed here from the 8th to the 3rd.
  2. Georg Friedrich Blaul : The Kaiserdom zu Speier: Guide and memory book, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, 1860, page 67; Digital scan
  3. ^ Kurt Buchholz: sculptor Emil Alexander Hopfgarten
  4. St. Jacobi-Luisenstadt: Pictures ( Memento of the original from June 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jacobiluisenstadt.de