Joseph Maria Christians

Joseph Maria Christen: Bust of Countess Ernestine von Montgelas (wife of Count Maximilian von Montgelas ), 1822, Bavarian National Museum

Joseph Anton Maria Christen (baptized February 22, 1767 in Buochs ; † March 30, 1838 at Thorberg Castle ) was a Swiss sculptor . As a representative of classicism , he was best known for his portrait busts , but also created figurative works.

biography

Christians grew up in the simplest of circumstances. His father Johann Jakob Walter Laurenz Christen was a shepherd, picture carver and painter of holy images («Helgen»). The son was denied schooling and had to do gainful employment as a child. In 1785 Christen went to Lucerne to the drawing school of the portrait painter Johann Melchior Wyrsch , besides he also attended a wood carving class. He showed artistic talent particularly in the creation of busts. In 1788 he traveled to Rome , where the sculptor Alexander Trippel worked. He let himself be introduced to the classical art movement. In Trippel's studio, Christen made the acquaintance of numerous other artists. The painter and art writer Johann Heinrich Meyer taught him the theoretical foundations of classicism.

In 1791 Christians lived in Zurich , where Salomon Gessner's widow patronized him. There belonged u. a. Martin von Muralt and Heinrich Keller among his students. Prominent people like Johann Rudolf Burckhardt began to collect his works. In 1792, Christians tried to set up an artists' academy in Stans , but experienced a lot of hostility from Catholic-conservative circles because of his Protestant circle of friends and therefore moved to Lucerne . In 1796 he joined the Helvetic Society , to which he had long been close. The final break with his homeland followed in 1798 when he married Rosine Scheuermann, a Protestant from Aarburg (without church dispensation and only with the permission of the Swiss Senate). The canton of Nidwalden did not recognize his children (including the later sculptor Raphael Christen ), which is why they were homeless in terms of poor law - until he was granted citizenship of Aarau in 1819 through Heinrich Zschokke's mediation .

Christian was restless, he was drawn from one place to another. He alternated between Bern , Lucerne, Aarau and Basel , depending on the incoming orders. Finally he settled in Basel, where he lived until 1817. He made busts of numerous personalities, including Frédéric-César de La Harpe , Heinrich Zschokke, Johannes Herzog and Ernst August Evers . The limestone, strictly classical monument to Esther Forcart-Weiss is the main work of his Basel phase . In 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to be crowned King of Lombardy . Christen went to Milan and was able to persuade the French emperor to have a few portrait sessions. The resulting bust of Napoleon made him famous in France , and he was able to make copies of it for several French cities and also for Copenhagen .

1808 the Bavarian king inquired Ludwig I at Johannes Müller for a capable sculptor who was capable of portrait busts Swiss personalities for the planned Walhalla to customize. Ludwig visited Christians in Basel and then gave him several commissions, including depictions by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi , Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel and Alois von Reding . A few years later, however, he fell out of favor with Ludwig, which is why he gave up his plan to settle in Munich . Instead, he portrayed famous travelers, including the Russian Tsar Alexander I and the former French Empress Marie-Louise . In 1815, Christians traveled to the Congress of Vienna , where he created busts and portrait medallions of many of those present. After 1819 he stayed mainly in Germany. a. as an employee of Ludwig Schwanthaler . With increasing age, Christian's state of mind deteriorated, so that the Aargau authorities placed him under guardianship and temporarily admitted to the Königsfelden insane asylum . He spent the last years of his life at Thorberg Castle , the state-run retirement home of the Canton of Bern .

literature

• Biographical Lexicon of the Canton of Aargau 1803–1957 . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . tape 68/69 . Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1958, p. 135-136 .
• Hans von Matt: The sculptor Joseph Maria Christen, 1767–1838 . Diepold Schilling Verlag, Lucerne 1957 (150 pages of text, 22 plates, catalog raisonné)
• Alfred A. Schmid:  Christians, Joseph Anton Maria. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 220 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Joseph Maria Christen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Dieter Ulrich : Christians, Joseph Maria. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Dieter Ulrich: Christians, Joseph Anton Maria. In: Sikart , 1998