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Christian Daniel Rauch | |
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 Rauch in 1855 | |
| Born | (1777-01-02)2 January 1777 |
| Died | 3 December 1857(1857-12-03) (aged 80) |
| Education | Friedrich Valentin Johann Christian Ruhl Prussian Academy of Art |
| Known for | Sculpture |
| Notable work | Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great |
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Christian Daniel Rauch (2 January 1777 – 3 December 1857) was a Germansculptor. He founded the Berlin school of sculpture, and was the foremost German sculptor of the 19th century.
Rauch was born atArolsen in the Principality ofWaldeck in theHoly Roman Empire. His father was employed at the court of PrinceFrederick II of Hesse, and in 1790 the lad wasapprenticed to the court sculptor of Arolsen, Friedrich Valentin. In 1795, he became assistant to Johann Christian Ruhl, thecourt sculptor ofKassel. After the death of his father in 1796 and his older brother in 1797, he moved to Berlin where he was appointed groom of the chamber in the king's household. He abandoned sculpture temporarily, but his new position provided a wider field for improvement, and he soon used the opportunity and practiced his art in his spare hours. He came under the influence ofJohann Gottfried Schadow.
In 1802, he exhibited his "Sleeping Endymion." QueenLouisa of Prussia, surprising him one day in the act of modeling her features in wax, sent him to study at thePrussian Academy of Art. Not long afterward, in 1804, Count Sandrecky gave Rauch the means to complete his education at Rome, whereWilhelm von Humboldt,Antonio Canova andBertel Thorvaldsen befriended him.[1] He also executed his life-size bust of Queen Louise in marble, and among his other early works were busts of the poetZacharias Werner, Count Wengersky and the painterRaphael Mengs, the latter executed on a commission fromLudwig I of Bavaria.[citation needed] Other works were bas-reliefs of "Hippolytus and Phaedra," "Mars and Venus wounded by Diomede," and a "Child praying." He remained in Rome for six years.[1]
In 1811, Rauch was commissioned to execute a monument for Queen Louisa of Prussia. The statue, representing the queen in a sleeping posture, was placed in a mausoleum in the grounds ofCharlottenburg and procured great fame and a European reputation for the artist. A similar statue of the Queen, even more successful, was placed in theSanssouci Park atPotsdam. The erection of nearly all public statues came to be entrusted to him. There were, among others,Bülow,Yorck andScharnhorst at Berlin,Blücher atBreslau,Maximilian atMunich,Francke atHalle,Dürer atNuremberg,Luther atWittenberg, and Grand DukePaul Friedrich atSchwerin.[1]
By 1824, he had executed 70 busts in marble of which 20 were of colossal size. His colossal bronze statues of Blücher are 13 feet in height, and he also executed the greater part of the 12 statues in iron which compose theNational Monument for the Liberation Wars on theKreuzberg, near Berlin. One of his finest works is the group "Faith, Hope and Charity," which he presented to his native town, Arolsen.
At length, in 1830, Rauch began, along with the architectKarl Friedrich Schinkel, the models fora colossal equestrian monument at Berlin to honor KingFrederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great). This work was inaugurated with great pomp in May 1851, and is regarded as one of the masterpieces of modern sculpture, the crowning achievement of Rauch's work as a portrait and historic sculptor. Princes decorated Rauch with honors and the academies of Europe enrolled him among their members. A statue ofImmanuel Kant forKönigsberg and a statue ofAlbrecht Thaer for Berlin occupied his attention during some of his last years; and he had just finished a model ofMoses praying betweenAaron andHur when he was attacked by his last illness.[1] In 1837 Rauch became associated member of theRoyal Institute of the Netherlands.[2] He died atDresden, aged 80.
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Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rauch, Christian Daniel".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 921.
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