Richard Moest

Richard Moest (born February 20, 1841 in Horb am Neckar ; † August 1, 1906 in Cologne ) was a German sculptor , restorer and art collector of the neo-Gothic period .

Life

Moest, born in Horb am Neckar - sometimes also spelled Möst - moved to Cologne in 1867. He had three children with his wife Wilhelmina Elisabeth Bischoffberger: the daughter Sibylle Agatha, who was usually called Rosa, the later sculptor and painter Josef Moest (1873–1914) and the later actor Hubert Moest (1877–1953).

plant

Moest was one of August von Kreling's students . He worked on the restoration and redesign of medieval art for historicism and neo-Gothic church art of the 19th and early 20th centuries. At the time, the restoration often consisted of re-carved additions according to historical taste or the removal of poorly preserved original substance and replacement with a copy. His restoration and complementary works include the Antwerp retable in St. Michael Zell-Merl , in St. Martin in Langerwehe , 1891, in St. Martin in Jülich- Barmen , in Heilig-Kreuz in Süggerath and the Georgs retabel in Cologne Cathedral , 1878.

His ahistorical interventions in medieval art have mostly been reversed in the meantime according to the current state of art history and restoration techniques. His new creations include the wooden relief groups on the St. Joseph's and Mary's altars in Immerath and the organ prospectus for the Berlin Cathedral .

The collection of primarily medieval sculptures that he had assembled in Cologne was declined as a donation by the city of Cologne after his death, as it had already accepted the Alexander Schnütgen collection in the same year . Moest's son Josef then moved the collection to the city's Suermondt Museum in Aachen, where it was presented in a special exhibition on the history of the collection in 2006 on the 100th anniversary of Moest's death.

literature

• Collecting - restoring - Gothicizing. The carver Richard Moest 1841–1906; for the 100th year of death. Edited by Dagmar Preising . Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen 2007, ISBN 3-929203-66-9