Wilhelm Meier (sculptor)

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Wilhelm Meier (born August 29, 1880 in Embrach , Canton of Zurich , † August 3, 1971 in St. Gallen ) was a Swiss sculptor .

Life

Market women, Globusbrunnen, St. Gallen

Wilhelm Meier lost his father when he was almost five years old. He grew up with his three siblings in Trogen AR , Canton Appenzell Ausserrhoden . From 1894 to 1897 he attended the Trogen Cantonal School there . During his school days, he stood out for his special talent for drawing. From 1897 Meier completed a three-year apprenticeship with the sculptor August Bösch , the creator of the Broderbrunnen in the center of the city of St. Gallen. Together with Bösch, Meier was able to study in Rome from 1901 to 1905 . He then traveled to Berlin and Leipzig for a while . Finally he settled in Munich in 1909 . In Munich he was particularly impressed by the work of Adolf von Hildebrand . There Meier was associated with the Munich artists' cooperative . After an exhibition, the Bavarian Neue Pinakothek acquired his terracotta sculpture Sinnende in 1911 . During a stay in Zurich, where he worked on the sculptures of the four evangelists for the Fraumünster Church , the First World War broke out in Germany. Meier therefore had to give up his Munich studio in 1914.

After his marriage in 1915, he lived with his family in St. Gallen from 1916, where he took up a teaching position for modeling at the trade school, which he held until 1928. As a teacher, he trained apprentices in his field. His first apprentice Josef Büsser was followed by others, such as Albert Oesch from 1926 and Ludwig Stocker from 1949. A total of fifteen apprentices were able to complete an apprenticeship as a sculptor at Meier.

From 1924 he lived with his family in the Tablat farm in the east of today's city of St. Gallen. His studio was also located there.

In 1931 he was able to study in Paris .

Meier was an active member of the Society of Swiss Painters, Sculptors and Architects (GSMBA, today visarte ).

After extensive work as a sculptor well into old age, he died at the age of 91.

Work as a sculptor

Early commissions for public space were the relief at the entrance to the St. Mangen industrial school in St. Gallen (1912) and the first, after a competition in 1919, the fountain sculpture Gallus with the bear for the inner courtyard of a museum in St. Gallen ( 1920).

Over the years figures for fountains, gardens and tombs as well as reliefs on churches were created. In addition to the work for public spaces, Meier created numerous relief portraits of personalities, terracotta sculptures and memorial stones.

Although Meier was a Reformed religion, thanks to the appreciation of certain architects he was also able to create sculptures such as that of a Madonna and Saint Martins for Catholic churches. Sculptures by the three reformers Zwingli , Luther and Calvin for the Evangelical Church in Buchs SG (1931) are also among his works.

In the course of his creative years, the style of his works changed from Art Nouveau as well as classicism and traditionalism ( non-avant-garde ) in the interwar period to moderate abstraction in some late works.

Works (selection)

  • Soldier memorial in the canton school park St. Gallen, 1919
  • Girl with water jug. St. Leonhardspark St. Gallen, 1927.
  • Boy. On the lakeside promenade Romanshorn , TG, 1933.
  • Two market women. Globe fountain at Rösslitor St. Gallen, 1941.
  • Christophorusbrunnen at Fürstenlandbrücke St. Gallen, 1944.
  • Youth at the canton school Burggraben St. Gallen, 1953.
  • Pan. St. Gallen Botanical Garden, 1957.
  • Landsgemeindebrunnen in Hundwil , AR, 1960.
  • Fountain figure on the area of ​​the Trogen Cantonal School , AR, 1965.

literature

  • Tamara Weibel: Wilhelm Meier 1880–1971: a St. Gallen sculptor between tradition and modernity. Biography. Historical and Ethnological Museum, St. Gallen 2010.
  • Karl Tschirky: Wilhelm Meier. St. Gallen, 1960.
  • Wilhelm Meier: Trogener as an artist. In: Communications from the Trogen Cantonal School Association. Review. Trogen 1948/49, pp. 29-33.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Meier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Regine Abegg et al .: The Fraumünster in Zurich. Bern 2008

  • Fountain sculpture Christophorus with baby Jesus, near Fürstenlandbrücke

  • Sculpture of a young man, Burggraben Cantonal School, St. Gallen

  • Fountain sculpture Fuhrmann, Krontal, St. Gallen

  • Child figure on Kugelgassbrunnen, St.Gallen

  • Girl with a water jug, St. Gallen

personal data
SURNAME Meier, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Embrach , Canton of Zurich
DATE OF DEATH 3rd August 1971
Place of death St. Gallen