Christian Behrens

Gustav Christian Friedrich Behrens ( born May 12, 1852 in Gotha, † September 14, 1905 in Breslau) was a German sculptor.

Life

Behrens was born the eldest son of Hofkürschnermeisters and fur trader Eduard Behrens (1819-1873) and his wife Johanne Magdalene, born Reinhard, ( 1820-1905 ). After attending the public school and the high school in his hometown Ernestinum Behrens completed an apprenticeship at the Gotha court sculptor sculptor Eduard Wolfgang.

In 1870 he went to Dresden, where he studied at the Art Academy and from 1872 to 1877 worked in the studio of master Ernst Julius Hähnel. 1873 received the just 21 -year-old for his statue Hagen, the Nibelungen hoard into the Rhine sinking the Great Golden Medal. Study trips in 1878 to Belgium, Holland, Paris, Italy, Vienna, New York and Boston.

1880/81 Behrens worked in the studios of Carl Kundmann and Edmund Hellmer in Vienna, after which he lived until 1885 as an independent artist in Dresden. In 1886 he was appointed head of the master studio for sculpture at the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Wroclaw. Here were, inter alia, Hugo Lederer, Franz Metzner and Ernst Seger his students. Behrens, a member of the German art association and the Artists' Union in Breslau, in 1896 the title of a royal Prussian professor verliehen.Im year was 1902, he was made an honorary member of the Dresden Art Academy.

Behrens, who remained unmarried and childless, died after a long illness at the age of only 53 years. The completion of his last major and most famous work - the monumental reliefs with the St. Michael at the entrance of the Battle of the Nations Monument in Leipzig - he did not live.

Gallery

Statue of Melanchthon (1900)

Relief of St. Michael ( 1904 /05)

The citizens devouring tax burden ( 1904 )

Equestrian statue of George the Bearded ( 1900)

Tomb family Najork (1895 )

Barbarossa head, Battle Monument ( 1904 /05)

Silesian House of the Estates (1892 )

Works (selection)

  • Statue Hagen, the Nibelungen hoard into the Rhine sinking in the Ducal Rentamt in Gotha (1873, 1945 lost)
  • Benvenuto Cellini's statue at the Johanneum in Dresden ( 1875 )
  • Statue of Elector Christian I of Saxony at the Johanneum in Dresden ( 1875 )
  • Sculpture The Kiss of the Sphinx in the National Museum Wroclaw ( 1880)
  • Statue of Duke Ernst II of Saxe -Coburg and Gotha in the Ducal Museum in Gotha (1882 )
  • Monument Allegory on the fisheries in Wroclaw (1883 )
  • Figure group The drunken revelers and the nagging wife, the entrance to the cellar Schweidnitzer at City Hall in Wroclaw (1892 )
  • Plastic architectural decoration at the Silesian estates house in Wroclaw (1892 )
  • Bust God Help Albert Sterzing in the plants of the Altschützengesellschaft in Gotha (1893 )
  • Statues Art and literature in the northeastern corner tower of the Reichstag in Berlin ( 1894)
  • Tomb of Najork family on the South Cemetery in Leipzig ( 1895)
  • Equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I in Wroclaw (1896; destroyed in 1945 )
  • Statue of Abraham Lincoln at the National Museum Wroclaw (before 1899)
  • Equestrian statue of Duke George the Bearded and facade decorations on Georgenbau in Dresden ( 1900, destroyed in 1945, around 1965 newly created )
  • Statue of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon at the bride portal Margaret Church in Gotha (1900)
  • Architectural sculptures for the equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I in Hall (1901, destroyed in 1945 )
  • The facade relief to citizens devouring tax burden at the entrance to the basement Council on New Town Hall in Leipzig ( 1904 )
  • Relief of Otto von Bismarck at the Villa Stollwerck in Cologne- Marienburg (1904; 1935 demolished)
  • Façade decoration of the house Friedrichstrasse 167/168 (former restaurant " Machine " ) in Berlin ( 1904)
  • Monument to the fallen of the wars in 1864, 1866 and 1870 /71, Gdansk (1904; 1945 eliminated )
  • Monumental sculpture of the Archangel Michael at Battle Monument in Leipzig ( 1904 /05)
  • Relief Battle left and right of the Archangel Michael at the Battle of the Nations Monument in Leipzig ( 1904 /05)
  • Barbarossa heads to the front stair stringers to the Voelkerschlachtdenkmal in Leipzig ( 1904 /05)

Designs

  • Bismarck monument in Hamburg (1901, together with Bruno Schmitz, 3rd prize)

Honors

  • Knight's Cross of the Ernestine House Order, Second Class (1882 )

Reception

" Behrens was not the man to the large amount in the art is not, and not in life. But who knew his works and was lucky enough to approach him, which opened up a personality of rare values ​​. A comprehensive education and original thoughts and a caustic sense of humor, these were the characteristics of his nature. In his work, paired with an unusually vivid sense of deep thoughtful content and a clever design language, the older styles with fondness, especially the Baroque, wit fully diversified. "

Wrocław Edmund von Hellmer Johanneum (Dresden) Christian I, Elector of Saxony National Museum, Wrocław New Town Hall (Leipzig) Gdańsk Saxe-Ernestine House Order Integrated Authority File
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