Sebastian Buscher

Sebastian Buscher in his workshop in Chicago around 1884

Sebastian Buscher (born August 17, 1849 in Gamburg , † December 25, 1926 in Chicago ) was a German sculptor and wood carver who lived and worked in Chicago since 1879.

Origin and career

Sebastian Buscher's parents were Friedrich Buscher (1817–1866) and Dorothea Buscher nee. Haefner (1818-1888). He had five siblings, of whom the brothers Clemens and Thomas were also well-known sculptors. Sebastian Buscher learned the stonemason trade in his father's company, which after the early death of his father in 1866 was taken over by his eldest son Karl Anton Cölestin Buscher (1844–1887) .

At the invitation of his uncle Franz Anton Buscher , who had emigrated to America in 1844, Sebastian Buscher went to Chicago in 1868. There the uncle ran a sculptor's workshop and at that time had received a major order to furnish the interior of the Holy Family Catholic Church , the Church of the Holy Family , on which Sebastian was supposed to work. As part of this commission, Sebastian Buscher independently created the “Last Supper” for the main altar and the statue of St. Mary for the side altar, which is said to be a masterpiece. Further carvings for this church by Sebastian Buscher are the guardian angel at the west gate and St. Michael at the east entrance, as well as the carvings of the confessionals, the choir stalls, the St. Anthony shrine and the vestry cupboards.

Eight years later Sebastian Buscher returned to Germany and enrolled on January 11, 1876 together with his six years younger brother Clemens for the subject of sculpture at the Royal Art Academy in Munich . For the parish church of St. Martin in his home town of Gamburg , he probably created the statue of St. Mary during these years, which is still attributed to the Nazarene style . After completing his studies, he returned to the USA and took over the sculpting workshop of his uncle, who died in 1879, in Chicago.

A few years later, Sebastian Buscher set up a residence for himself and his family on Julius Street, where his sculpting workshop was also located. In addition to various sculptures, larger monuments have also been preserved from his workshop in the Chicago cemeteries. After the workshop was sold to the Schaeffer brothers in 1897, he continued to work as a model designer.

Sebastian Buscher had been married to Maria Schmitt since 1880 and gave birth to thirteen children, eleven of whom survived.

literature

• Heinz Bischof: Chronicle of the Buscher brothers. A forgotten German artist's fate. Tauberbischofsheim 1988, ISBN 3-924780-13-7 .
• Charlotte Baumann-Hendriks, Adelheid Waschka: Thomas Buscher (1860–1937). Bavarian realism between neo-Gothic and neo-baroque. (Exhibition catalog) Hallstadt 2007.

swell

• Register book of the Academy of Fine Arts Munich for the years 1841–1884