| Eilhard Mitscherlich | |
|---|---|
 Bust on display in theNatural History Museum, Berlin | |
| Artist | Elisabet Ney |
| Year | 1863 (1863) |
| Medium | Marble sculpture |
| Subject | Eilhard Mitscherlich |
| Dimensions | 63 cm × 41 cm × 31 cm (25 in × 16 in × 12 in)[1] |
| Location | Natural History Museum,Berlin, Germany |
Eilhard Mitscherlich is a sculpture of German chemistEilhard Mitscherlich by sculptorElisabet Ney. Completed in 1863, the piece is a portraitbust rendered inmarble. The marble bust is now held by theBerlin's Natural History Museum, while the original plaster is displayed in Mitscherlich'smausoleum in Berlin'sAlter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof.
In the early 1860s, sculptorElisabet Ney kept her studio inBerlin, where she had trained under the recently deceasedChristian Daniel Rauch. The critical success of her1859 portrait bust of philosopherArthur Schopenhauer had led to a commission for a portrait of KingGeorge V of Hanover; these two works won Ney a degree of celebrity in German artistic circles.[2]: 29
In 1861 she received a commission for a portrait of the chemistEilhard Mitscherlich, a prominent and much-decorated researcher at theFrederick William University in Berlin. Ney showed the finishedplaster version of the portrait at theParis Salon of 1861, alongside her portrait of Schopenhauer.[2]: 30 She subsequently cut a final version of the piece inmarble in 1863. The marble is now held by theNatural History Museum in Berlin, while the plaster original was installed in Mitscherlich'smausoleum in theAlter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof after his death.
Mitscherlich depicts its subject in his late sixties, unclothed, with bare shoulders and upper chest showing. The figure's head is turned to the right, with a slight smile dimpling the cheeks. The front of the base is inscribed with the words "EILH: MITSCHERLICH." The piece blendsneoclassical elements (such as the absence of clothing and unincised eyes) withrealistic details, such as wrinkled skin and areceding hairline; this blending of classicism and realism is an approach to portraiture that reflects the stylistic influence of Ney's mentor, Christian Daniel Rauch.[2]: 18
Media related toEilhard Mitscherlich by Elisabet Ney at Wikimedia Commons