Thomas Buscher

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Drawings from Thomas Buscher's drawing book
Thomas Buscher: high altar of the Holy Spirit Church in Mannheim
High altar of the parish church of the Assumption of Mary (Bad Königshofen im Grabfeld)

Thomas Buscher (born March 7, 1860 in Gamburg , Tauberfranken, † May 13, 1937 in Ammerland ) was a German sculptor and wood carver of historicism .

Origin and career

Thomas Buscher was born as the sixth child of master stonemason Friedrich Buscher and his wife Dorothea, b. Häfner, born. After the father's early death in 1866, the family business was taken over by the eldest son, Karl Anton Cölestin Buscher (1844–1887). Probably through the mediation of his brother Clemens Buscher , who had studied sculpture together with his brother Sebastian Buscher at the Munich Art Academy since 1876 , Thomas Buscher began an apprenticeship as a sculptor in 1876 at the institute for church art of the Munich architect Joseph Elsner . On October 29, 1880, he enrolled at the Knabl Sculpture School at the Royal Academy of Art . After completing his studies, he went to America in 1884 and worked in Chicago as an ornament carver in the workshop of his older brother Sebastian Buscher, who had settled permanently in Chicago a few years earlier and took over the sculpting workshop of his uncle Franz Anton Buscher , who died in 1879 . In 1886 Thomas Buscher returned to Munich and initially carried out commissioned work as a freelancer for his former teacher Joseph Elsner. In 1888 he started his own business as a “manufacturer of all kinds of wood carvings” and from 1891 onwards he ran a studio together with the sculptor Balthasar Schmitt on Karlstrasse in Munich. He also taught at the craft carving school. In 1900 he bought a house at Nymphenburger Straße 40 in Munich , which also housed his church art studio . On June 13, 1907, he received Bavarian citizenship and in 1913 he was appointed royal Bavarian professor of sculpture at the art academy without teaching commitment.

Thomas Buscher specialized primarily in carvings and sculptures for churches, but also carried out orders for grave monuments and war memorials. In keeping with the times, he created his works in the style of historicism , initially turning to neo-Gothic , neo-Romanesque and later also to neo- baroque . Although all of his works were of high artistic standards and high quality craftsmanship, some of them fell victim to the purification of the church rooms after the Second Vatican Council. In some parishes, they were later returned to their original locations as part of church renovations. Although historicism has regained prestige in recent times, Buscher's works have not yet been extensively examined and evaluated from an art-historical perspective.

Thomas Buscher had been married to the Munich timber merchant's daughter Creszentia Maria Mamhofer since 1890. The marriage had daughters Cäcilie (* 1892), Elisabeth (* 1894), Theodora (* 1897) and Gertrude (* 1900).

His home town Werbach-Gamburg dedicated a museum to him and his brother Clemens, which opened in 2013, the Gamburger Buscher Museum.

Selection of his works

Crucifixion group in Munich's Westfriedhof

The earliest evidence of his artistic development is the drawing book from 1876/77, which accompanied him both during his training with Joseph Elsner and in his free time.

Elector Carl Theodor at the Mannheim Jesuit Church

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Liebfrauenkapelle in Werbach
  2. ↑ See article in the Main-Post

literature

  • Charlotte Baumann-Hendriks: The speaking figure of truth and life in our Bavaria February 2010 Volume 59 No. 2, Bayerische Staatszeitung
  • Charlotte Baumann-Hendriks: The story of the Way of the Cross by Thoma Buscher in the Miltenberg parish church St. Jakobus maior in: Spessart, monthly magazine for the Spessart cultural landscape, July 2010
  • Ehrentraut Bohnengel: Thomas Buscher's works in Großheubach in: Spessart, monthly magazine for the Spessart cultural landscape, July 2010
  • Buscher, Thomas . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 1 : A-D . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1953, p. 557 .
  • Charlotte Baumann-Hendriks, Adelheid Waschka: Thomas Buscher (1860–1937). Bavarian realism between neo-gothic & neo-baroque . Exhibition catalog. ArGe Thomas Buscher, Hallstadt 2007
  • Heinz Bischof: Chronicle of the Buscher brothers. A forgotten German artist's fate . Fränkische Nachrichten, Tauberbischofsheim 1988, ISBN 3-924780-13-7
  • Heinz Bischof: The master of the Höpfinger high altar . In: Unser Land 1995. Home calendar for Neckartal, Odenwald, building land and Kraichgau , ISSN  0932-8173 , pp. 217–220
  • Heinz Bischof in: Congregation through the ages - 100 years of the Liebfrauenkirche Mannheim. Festschrift . Mannheim 2003
  • Helmuth Lauf: In the footsteps of the Gamburg sculptor family Buscher . In: Frankenland , ISSN  0015-9905 , 33rd year 1981, pp. 169-172
  • Martin Seidel: Buscher, Thomas . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 15, Saur, Munich a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-598-22755-8 , p. 314 f.

Web links

Commons : Thomas Buscher  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Buscher, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Gamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1937
Place of death Ammerland