Joseph Echteler

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Joseph Echteler (1908)

Joseph Anton Echteler (born January 5, 1853 in Legau , † December 23, 1908 in Mainz ) was a German sculptor .

Life

After Echteler, the son of the economist, trader and baker Leonhard Echteler and Marianna v. Sandwood had tended cows and sheep until he was twelve, he learned the craft of stone knocker, carver, stucco maker, marmorist, formator and ornament sculptor from a stonecutter in Leutkirch in the Allgäu . While traveling he came to Stuttgart , where he attended art school from 1871 to 1872. In November 1872 he continued his artistic training in Munich at the Academy of Fine Arts under Max von Widnmann and Joseph Knabl .

Pirithous' battle for Helena. Woodcut by Richard Brend'amour after the sculpture by Joseph Echteler.

Echteler became known as an artist in Munich through medallions , reliefs and busts with the portraits of well-known stage artists, singers, experts, scholars, imperial councilors, church dignitaries, diplomats and princely persons, which he designed lifelike from photographic templates. His works are characterized by great resemblance and careful execution. These were soon followed by grave monuments, religious and mythological sculptures, animals and group representations. Echteler was a member of the Munich Art Association , in which he had his own exhibition as early as 1874.

Echteler left Munich in May 1884 and moved with his family to the United States of America for three years . In New York he mainly worked as a portrait painter. When President Grant died in 1885 and it was decided to erect a monument and mausoleum in New York in his memory, Echteler worked out a design and was thus one of the finalists in February 1887. In the end, however, he was not commissioned: the General Grant National Memorial was implemented by John H. Duncan . In the autumn of 1887 he returned to Munich.

Echteler made busts, reliefs, plaques, medals and coins of the highest crown bearers in Europe. His work comprises around 200 busts, including those of Kaiser Wilhelm, Franz Joseph, Alexander II and the kings of Bavaria and Württemberg. For this he received numerous honors, medals and awards. In order to be awarded the honorary title of Professor by Prince Heinrich XXII. von Reuss zu Greiz almost threatened to break out into a diplomatic crisis between the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss older line in 1899 , as the Free State of Echteler initially did not allow the title awarded by this prince to be used in Bavaria. Echteler resolved the matter by taking on the citizenship of the principality, which allowed him to use the title of professor from then on.

Emil Graf von Schlitz called von Görtz was one of Echteler's pupils .

Polychrome sculptures

As a visual artist, Echteler strived for the ideal of being as close to life as possible and, in doing so, bravely broke new ground. This also included his experiments in the 1880s with polychrome painting to give his portrait busts an even greater resemblance to the person depicted. With these works, Echteler got into the polychrome dispute of the 19th century, between the fronts of the established classicist position, according to which sculptures should always be monochrome and preferably white, and more avant-garde views. Echteler's works, such as the bust of Johann Nepomuk von Nussbaum , have been praised by friends of polychrome sculpture as the most perfect of their kind to date. In the Munich Glass Palace , however, Echteler's polychrome works were rejected.

Inventions

Echteler is also the inventor of an apparatus for the "natural plastic copy", i. H. after a face mask molded from the living or the dead to create a "natural bust".

In addition, Echteler invented his own mass of sculptures, which he baptized "Euphoryt" and which he perfected in the 1880s. Echteler's “Euphoryt”, from which he created many busts himself, is rock-hard, weatherproof and washable.

Marriages and offspring

Echteler was married three times. After three girls emerged from his first marriage, but no male descendants , in 1890, after the stillbirth of a son, he abandoned his wife Dorathea (née Seybold) with their children Marie (* 1878), Olga (* 1886) and Eda (* 1888). These remained in the US, where he had sent in February 1890 for an excuse, immediately before the marriage according to Catholic Canon Law cancel let and re-married. Echteler's second and third marriage did not result in any common offspring. His second wife was called Elisabeth Fuchs (nee Geret); they married in 1890 and divorced again in 1904. Echteler last married the widow Anna Kramer (née Nikolai) in 1905.

Others

Echteler's dog Bayard, painted by the English animal painter Frank Paton

Echteler was also a dog breeder and connoisseur. One of his dogs, the Saint Bernard Bayard (Barry), saved 37 lives from water and fire and was a direct descendant of the famous Swiss avalanche dog Barry . The New York Times reported in 1884 that Echteler presented Barry at the Westminster dog show in New York.

In the German Nekrolog it is mentioned that Echteler, who was a swimmer and member of the Munich gymnastics club Jahn, saved his life three times "courageously young life from the water".

Since a head injury from a horse's hoof strike in 1889 (possibly damage to the frontal lobe ), Echteler's personality had changed: he was very irritable and sensitive to noise ever since. The accident is also clearly recognizable in the change in his handwriting. In Munich he got into neighborly disputes with lawsuits and lawsuits, which is why he moved to the home of his third wife in Mainz in 1908. There he died two months later at the age of 55.

Works (selection)

Bust of Konrad Maurer , 1888, today owned by the National and University Library of Iceland

Honors

literature

Web links

Commons : Joseph Echteler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joseph Echteler's Design for a Grant Monument. In: Scientific American Building Edition. Volume 3, No. 2 (= American Periodicals ) February 1, 1887, p. 31.
  2. ↑ Echteler, Joseph A. In: Herrmann AL Degener : Who is it? . 3rd edition, Leipzig 1908, p. 298 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ); 4th edition, Leipzig 1908, p. 308 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ Echteler's title of professor. In: The German Correspondent. April 3, 1899, p. 3 ( chroniclingamerica.loc.gov ).
  4. ↑ From Munich studios: Anton Kaindl - Joseph Echteler. In: Munich Art. 1889, p. 58.
  5. ↑ Carol Elizabeth Skog, Marie's granddaughter, personal communications (2011).
  6. ^ Hyacinth Holland : Echteler, Josef . In: Anton Bettelheim (Hrsg.): Biographisches Jahrbuch and Deutscher Nekrolog . tape 13 : From January 1st to December 31st, 1908 . Georg Reimer, Berlin 1908, p. 108-109 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  7. ↑ Karl Friedrich Arnold von Lützow, Richard Graul, Max George Zimmerman: Journal for visual arts. Volume 15, 1880, p. 400.
  8. ↑ a b Ministerialblatt for Church and School Affairs in the Kingdom of Bavaria. 1908.
  9. ↑ a b recognizable in the photo above, but unoccupied
personal data
SURNAME Echteler, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Echteler, Joseph Anton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Legau
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1908
Place of death Mainz