Ferdinand Seeboeck

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Ferdinand Seeboeck (born March 27, 1864 in Vienna , † December 18, 1952 in Rome ) was an Austrian sculptor .

Live and act

Born as the son of Wilhelm Seeboeck, a businessman, and Amalie Seeboeck, b. Bauer, the sixteen-year-old was accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 1880 and studied sculpture with Edmund von Helmer . Registered until 1884, Seeboeck left his hometown Vienna in 1885 to seek artistic inspiration in Italy. In 1889 he worked for a few months in the sculptor's studio of Adolf von Hildebrand (1847–1921) and probably got to know the industrialist and art patron Ludwig Mond , who had granted Seebock a scholarship. This allowed Seeboeck to settle in Rome, where he was able to rent one of the residential studios that the wealthy painter Alfred Strohl-Fern (1847–1927) had built for young artists in the park of his villa . Through his patron Ludwig Mond, Seeboeck found access to the circle of friends of Henriette Hertz (1846–1913), the founder of the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, from whom he was given portraits. In 1894 a marble bust of the art collector and writer Count Adolf von Schack (1815–1894) was created for his gallery in Munich.

Around 1885 Seeboeck was able to move into an apartment and studio in the legendary artist street Via Margutta near the Spanish Steps , which he kept throughout his life. In addition to portraits, Seeboeck earned his living selling small sculptures. From Rome he maintained contacts to Germany and traveled there to do commissioned work, such as a monument bust of the famous pastor Sebastian Kneipp (1821–1897), which was erected in Wörishofen in 1899 . Exhibitions in his atelier in Rome also served to promote acquisitions, so that Seeboeck was able to rely on a number of more or less prominent clients after the turn of the century. His studio guest book, which was kept until 1947, brought together almost everything that was of rank and name in the Roman art world during these years.

Tomb of Elisabeth Wegener-Passarge, Cimitero Acattolico, Rome

In 1902 Seeboeck's bride Elisabeth Wegener-Passarge (1884–1902) died of typhoid at the age of 18. The blow of fate drove the sculptor from Rome and led him to southern Germany in search of clients. There the busts of the Würzburg theologian Herman Schell (1850–1906) and a double bust of Grand Duke Ludwig von Baden (1826–1907) and his wife Luise von Prussia (1838–1923) were created in 1903 . From 1905 to 1909 Seeboeck had a summer studio in Baden-Baden. In Rome in 1907 he made the clay model for a bust of Pope Pius X , which was then executed several times in marble. The work secured Seeboeck a number of commissions from church circles, including in Germany, where in 1909 he portrayed the Cologne prelate and art collector Alexander Schnütgen (1843–1918).

Hildesheim cat fountain

In 1913 Seeboeck received the order for a monumental fountain sculpture in Hildesheim (cat fountain on Neustädter Markt ).

Seeboeck spent the war years in Germany; not until 1919 did he return to Rome. A Berlin child portrait from 1918 is the only known work from this period. After the First World War, orders were rare for the sculptor, until 1922, the Bishop of Cleveland from Regensburg received an order for the USA for the first time, which was to be followed by more in the following years, supported by an illustrated article in the journal Die christliche Kunst (1925 / 26). For the Benedictine Abbey of St. Vincent in Latrobe / Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, Seeboeck created larger-than-life marble statues of Benedict and other saints as well as a monumental statue of the abbey's founder, Bonifaz Wimmer (1809-1887), which was unveiled in 1931.

Seeboeck, who married the Roman Maria Giorgi (1888–1960) in 1923, also came into closer contact with the Salvatorian Order in the 1920s. The Roman general Pankratius Pfeiffer (1872–1945) commissioned Seeboeck with a statue of Salvator for the Generalate House in the former Palazzo Cesi , which was followed by further work orders for Rome, but also for religious offices in England and the USA. Seeboeck's last known work was a plaster model of a statue of the founder of the order, Franziskus Jordan (1848–1918), which the 77-year-old had made in 1941.

In 1950 Seeboeck closed his studio in Via Margutta and moved with his wife into a smaller apartment in Via E. Gianturco, where he died on December 18, 1952. Two days later he was buried in the Campo Verano cemetery in Rome.

Works

Professor Andor Izsák (right) in 2013 in front of the bust of Siegmund Seligmann in conversation with Ernst August Prince of Hanover

A list of the known works at: G. Mayer, Ferdinand Seeboeck. Sculptor in Rome, Rome 2002, p. 59ff.

Selection of works:

  • Statuette Henriette Hertz (1846–1913) at the desk while working on her monograph on Pinturicchio (Rome, Bibliotheca Hertziana), h. 21.5 cm, 1890s, bronze
  • Statue of Sappho (London, King's College), 1893, marble (commissioned by Ludwig Mond, donated to King's College by the Estate of Frida Mond in 1923)
  • Portrait bust of Adolf von Schack (1815–1894), art collector and writer (Munich, Schack Collection), 1894, height 69 cm, marble
  • Portrait bust of Sebastian Kneipp (1821–1897), pastor and healer (Bad Wörishofen, Park of the Kneippianum), 1899, marble
  • Tomb of Elisabeth Wegener-Passarge (1884–1902) , Rome, Cimitero Acattolico per Stranieri, 1902, marble
  • Portrait bust of Friedrich Althoff (1839–1908), Prussian cultural politician (Göttingen, Aula University), 1907, marble
  • Portrait bust of Marie von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1855–1906) (Frascati, Villa Falconieri), 1907, marble
  • Portrait bust of Friedrich Paulsen (1846–1908), educator and philosopher (Bredstedt, Nordfriisk Instituut), 1908, plaster of paris
  • Portrait bust of Alexander Schnütgen (1843–1918), Catholic theologian, Cologne cathedral capitular, art collector and museum founder (Cologne, Schnütgen Museum), 1909/10, marble
  • Portrait bust of Ernst von Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1846–1909), banker and patron (Frascati, Villa Falconieri), 1911, marble
  • Portrait bust of Ludovika Baroness von Stumm-Ramholz , née von Rauch (1866–1945), founder of the Schlüchtern Hospital ( Schlüchtern, Villa Ludovika), 1912, marble
  • Portrait bust of Siegmund Seligmann (1853–1925), founder of the Continental Gummiwerke (Hanover, Villa Seligman), 1915, marble
  • Portrait bust of a girl with teddy bear (private property), height 55 cm, 1918, plaster (label: "Ferdinand Seeboeck Berlin 1918")
  • Colossal statue Bonifaz Wimmer OSB (1809–1887), Bavarian Benedictine, founder of Benedictine monasticism in the USA. Founder and first abbot of St. Vincent Abbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania (Latrobe / Pennsylvania, St. Vincent Abbey), 1931, bronze
  • Hunting Diana (Rome, Bibliotheca Hertziana, inv. No. B20003), h. 49 cm, 1933, bronze (marked "F. Seeboeck / Roma. 1933")

literature

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand Seeboeck  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Trapp: A tale of two statues. In: Comment, The King's College Newsletter. No. 167 (May 2006), p. 13.
  2. ^ Bladder Strittmatter: Forward, Always Forward. The History and Construction of the Wimmer Memorial Statue. St. Vincent Archabbey Publications, Latrobe 2004.
personal data
SURNAME Seeboeck, Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 18th December 1952
Place of death Rome