Max Leu

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Max Leu (born February 26, 1862 in Solothurn ; † February 4, 1899 in Basel ; legal resident in Rohrbach BE ) was a Swiss sculptor .

life and work

Max Leu spent his childhood and youth in Solothurn in simple middle-class circumstances. Here he received his first artistic impulses from his drawing teacher, the sculptor Joseph Pfluger . After completing school and working in the studio of a grave sculptor, he completed an apprenticeship as a sculptor in Basel with Jacques Gürtler , a student of Achilles Schlöth . At the same time, he took lessons from the sculptor Heinrich Rudolf Meili and the painter Fritz Schider at the drawing and modeling school at that time , both of whom encouraged them to continue their artistic training.

In 1879 Leu moved to Lyon , where he worked on the Fontaine des Jacobins . In 1881 he settled in Paris . Under the direction of Léopold Morice , he worked on the sculptural decoration of the Hôtel de Ville . He met his future teacher and mentor Pierre Jules Cavelier , who taught at the École des Beaux-Arts .

In 1883 Leu enrolled at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs , a year later he switched to the École des Beaux-Arts . At that time, Leu also studied and copied classical and ancient sculptures in the Louvre collections. He was awarded several medals at both Paris art schools. The training period in Paris was formative for Leu: “The official sculpture of France cultivated a heroic image of man, which manifested itself primarily in allegorical or historical themes with a national touch. Leu made the acquaintance of monumental sculpture at Cavelier's, which after his return to Switzerland benefited him especially in public competitions »(Susanne Schrödter).

Already during his time in Paris Leu created independent works, including a. Busts, which he exhibited in the Salon de Paris from 1886 . At that time an allegory of the Jungfrau mountain in the Bernese Oberland was created in the form of a naked girl.

From 1886 he took part in several monument competitions in Switzerland. Several of his designs have also received awards. He received the first prize around 1886 for his memorial design for Daniel Jean Richard , the founder of the Neuchâtel watch industry, in Le Locle . The Geneva sculptor Charles Iguel was commissioned with the execution of Leu's design .

In the second, closer competition for a memorial fountain for Mayor Wettstein on the market square in Basel, Leu emerged victorious in 1897, but his design was not carried out because the majority voted against the memorial project in a referendum. A bronze figure was later cast based on Leu's design and is set up in the entrance hall of the Grand Council Chamber of Basel City Hall.

He was awarded third prize for the design for the Tell monument in Altdorf . Leu received a direct order without competition for the Johann Peter Hebel memorial bust in front of St. Peter's Church in Basel, which, however, was only unveiled after his death. In 1898 he made the model for a monument to the Stauffacherin, the legendary wife of Werner Stauffacher , without commission , which he exhibited at the 5th National Art Exhibition in Basel. In the same year he made several designs for a Holbein fountain in Basel.

The Bubenberg monument, created between 1892 and 1897 and inaugurated in Bern on July 18, 1897, is Leu's main work . The art historian Susanne Schrödter writes: "The artist has succeeded in translating the Wilhelminian love for the idealization of great statesmen into a simple formal language and at the same time visualizing the political content of strength and unity."

Another group of works are various portraits of well-known personalities, which are more individual than the monuments. Leu created busts for Bishop Friedrich Fiala , Federal Councilor Emil Frey , factory owner Oscar Miller , Landammann Wilhelm Vigier , Professor Friedrich Burckhardt , his former teacher Fritz Schider and his artist friends Wilhelm Balmer and the late Frank Buchser . In addition, he also made portrait reliefs, for example of Oscar Miller's wife Elise.

Leu moved to Basel in 1898. A year later he succumbed to cancer, which he had hoped for a cure in the autumn of 1898 on a planned trip to Greece, which he had to break off in Nervi . Max Leu, like his friend Frank Buchser, was buried in the St. Niklaus cemetery in Feldbrunnen near Solothurn . Another friend of Max Leu was Giovanni Giacometti , who portrayed him in his Paris studio in 1890.

Works by Max Leu can be found in the art museums of Basel , Bern and Solothurn , where they are mostly not on display.

literature

Web links

Commons : Max Leu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dorothea Christ: Painter and sculptor of the Basler Künstler Gesellschaft, 1850–1950. Kunsthalle Basel, July 13 to September 14, 1980. Basel 1980, p. 64.
  2. ^ Albert Gessler: The creator of the Bubenberg monument in Bern. In: Switzerland. Swiss illustrated magazine. Vol. 1, 1897, pp. 134-136, here p. 136.
  3. ^ Albert Gessler: The creator of the Bubenberg monument in Bern . In: Switzerland. Swiss illustrated magazine. Vol. 1, 1897, pp. 134-136, here p. 136.
  4. ↑ Susanne Schrödter: Leu, Max. In: Sikart .
  5. ^ Albert Gessler: The creator of the Bubenberg monument in Bern . In: Switzerland. Swiss illustrated magazine. Vol. 1, 1897, pp. 134-136, here p. 136.
  6. ↑ Susanne Schrödter: Leu, Max. In: Sikart .
  7. ^ Gustaf Adolf Wanner : All about Basel's monuments. Basel 1975. pp. 36f .; Stefan Hess : "The man stands upstairs & the water comes out below". In 1898 the Basel men voted against a Wettstein monument. In: Basler Stadtbuch 1998 (1999 edition), pp. 221–224 ( Link ).
  8. ↑ Othmar Birkner , Hanspeter Rebsamen: INSA. Inventory of recent Swiss architecture 1850–1920: Basel. Bern 1986, p. 177 ( digitized version ).
  9. ^ Pedagogical sheets 11 (1904), p. 385 ( digitized version ); Susanne Schrödter: Leu, Max. In: Sikart ; Documentation of a small exhibition .
  10. ↑ Voralberger Volksblatt. May 7, 1899 ( digitized version ); Gustaf Adolf Wanner: All about Basel's monuments. Basel 1975, pp. 64-66.
  11. ^ Emil Beurmann: Max Leu †. In: Switzerland. Swiss illustrated magazine. 3 (1899), pp. 85f. (with ill.); Karin Helm: Raisins from the gazebo. Gütersloh 1963, p. 120; Susanne Schrödter: Leu, Max. In: Sikart ; Documentation of a small exhibition .
  12. ^ Dorothea Christ: Painter and sculptor of the Basler Künstler Gesellschaft, 1850–1950. Kunsthalle Basel, July 13 to September 14, 1980. Basel 1980, p. 94.
  13. ↑ Susanne Schrödter: Leu, Max. In: Sikart .
  14. ↑ Susanne Schrödter: Leu, Max. In: Sikart .
  15. ^ Elisabeth Esther Köhler: Life and Work of Giovanni Giacometti 1868-1933. Zurich 1968, pp. 92, 135.
personal data
SURNAME Leu, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Solothurn
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 1899
Place of death Basel