Nikolaus Geiger

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Nikolaus Geiger (around 1893)

Nikolaus Geiger (born December 6, 1849 in Lauingen , Bavaria ; † November 27, 1897 in Deutsch-Wilmersdorf ) was a German painter , sculptor and professor at the Berlin Art Academy . His wife was the sculptor Henny Spiegel .

Career

Geiger began his apprenticeship as a stonemason , but broke it off to go to the Munich Art Academy at the age of 16 , where his older brother Caspar Augustin Geiger was studying. Nikolaus Geiger was a student of Joseph Knabl and successfully took part in several competitions within the academy. In 1872 he left the academy.

During the short economic boom that began after the Franco-German War in 1870/1871 , Geiger went to Berlin, where he initially found it difficult to gain a foothold. It was only when he worked for the Tiele-Winckler family at Palais Tiele- Winckler that he became known in Berlin. From 1877 to 1879 he completed studies in Italy, was in Paris in 1880, in Vienna in 1881 and in Munich from 1881 to 1884. Back in Berlin, Geiger moved into the ground floor and courtyard at Dessauerstraße 7 in Berlin-Lankwitz . In 1886, during the construction of the domed hall of the state exhibition building at Lehrter Bahnhof under the architects Kayser & von Großheim , Nicolaus Geiger took over the artistic creations and carried out one of the groups, the "Inspiration". Around 1887/88 he lived at Potsdamerstraße 66, now together with his wife Henny. At the beginning of 1890 the Geigers moved into a house on Nachodstrasse at the corner of Kaiserallee in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.

From 1893 to 1897 he was a member of the Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin. In the period that followed he exhibited several times at international art exhibitions in Berlin and Munich. Until his untimely death at the age of only 47, he worked on numerous buildings and - also internationally - on monuments through two blood falls in quick succession .

Geiger was married to the sculptor Henny, née Spiegel (1856–1915), who made a bust of her husband and the architect Bruno Schmitz and was a student of Max Klein . From 1889 to 1892 she exhibited the figure of a drowned girl in the Munich Glass Palace under the name “ Stranded ”.

It was praised for the realistic design of the two busts in the Art Chronicle of 1892:

“The best portrait in the exhibition is a three-dimensional one: the marble bust of the sculptor N. Geiger by the hand of his wife Henny Geiger-Spiegel, which comes very close to her teacher and husband in realistic truth and resolute rendering of nature, including her bust of the architect Bruno Schmitz gives testimony. "

Geiger was buried in the Wilmersdorf cemetery. The grave site still recorded in Willi Wohlberedt's publication is no longer preserved today. A street in Lauingen was named after him.

Works (selection)

Carl Hofmann grave , architecture by Bruno Schmitz , sculpture Mourners by Nikolaus Geiger, ( Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof Berlin )

Sculptures

  • “Centaur with dancing nymph”, before 1897, bronze
  • "Head of an Old Woman", before 1897, bronze
  • "Head of a Young Girl", before 1897, bronze
  • “After the Fall”, 1896, bronze
  • Sculpture of the emperor Friedrich Barbarossa for the Kyffhäuser monument

  • Barbarossa

  • Barbarossa

  • Gable relief of St. Hedwig's Cathedral

Dresdner Bank on Opernplatz , 1888

Numerous other works were destroyed in World War II, including a. the sculptures in the Villa Saloschin in Berlin, the life-size statue “Arbeit” for the Reichsbank in Berlin, the figural frieze and the crowning group of figures above the attic of the central building of the Dresdner Bank , four figures on the corner of the Werderhaus Berlin .

painting

  • The Sinner , bought in 1884, 1898 by the National Gallery Berlin
  • Ceiling painting Adoration of the Christ Child in St. Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin

literature

Web links

Commons : Nikolaus Geiger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 02237 Nikolaus Geiger, matriculation book 1841-1884, entry date March 28, 1866, subject sculpture , accessed on February 14, 2020
  2. ^ Geiger, N., Sculptor, Dessauerstr. 7 in Berlin address book, edition 1884 , p. 263
  3. ↑ The anniversary exhibition of the fine arts in Berlin. , in Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung edition 1886, No. 8, p. 222
  4. ↑ Henny Spiegel in Berlin, Potsdammerstrasse 66 , in the catalog exhibition of the Royal Academy of the Arts in Berlin in the state exhibition building , 1887, p. 243
  5. ^ Geiger, N., sculptor and painter, Potsdammer. 66 HI, Atel. Dessauerstr. 7 , in Berlin address book, edition 1888, p. 299
  6. ^ Geiger, N., sculptor a. History painter. * Wilmersdorf, Nachodstrasse (on Kais.Allee, Geigersches Haus). E .; Geiger-Spiegel, Henny, sculptor. * Wilmersdorf, Nachodstr. (ad Kaiserallee, Geigersches Haus). , in Gesellschaft von Berlin , Edition 3, 1893/94
  7. ↑ Nikolaus Geiger - sculptor, professor. Academy of the Arts, accessed March 1, 2019 .
  8. ^ Henny Geiger-Spiegel: born on September 22, 1856 in Berlin; Training in the studios of Nikolaus Geiger and Max Klein; Sculptor for figures and busts; Member of the Association of Berlin Women Artists; married to the sculptor Nikolaus Geiger (1849–1897); Died in 1915 in an institution for the mentally ill near Leipzig.
  9. ↑ Geiger, Henny b. Mirror . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 13 : Gaab-Gibus . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1920, p. 343 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  10. ↑ Collections and exhibitions . In: Art Chronicle . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1892, Sp. 267 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive - For the 13th exhibition of the artists and art lovers in Berlin in February 1982).
  11. ↑ “Centaur with dancing nymph” in the holdings of the National Gallery Berlin
  12. ↑ "Head of an Old Woman" in the holdings of the National Gallery Berlin
  13. ↑ "Head of a Young Girl" in the holdings of the National Gallery Berlin
  14. ↑ "After the Fall" in the holdings of the National Gallery Berlin
  15. ^ Illustration of the residential building on the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Behrenstrasse in Berlin; Text p. 56 , in Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung, edition 1887, No. 6, p. 55
  16. ↑ Gable relief "Adoration of the Kings" , on stiftung-masswerk.de (tracery - Foundation for the preservation and completion of church buildings and works of art of the Christian churches in Berlin and Brandenburg), accessed on February 15, 2020
  17. ↑ Berlin: Henny Geiger-Spiegel; Execution Giebelfeld Hedwigskirche , in Die Kunst für alle , issue 23, from September 1, 1898, p. 364
personal data
SURNAME Violinist, Nicholas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Lauingen , Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 1897
Place of death German Wilmersdorf