Adolf von Hildebrand (6 October 1847 – 18 January 1921) was a German sculptor.
Life
Hildebrand was born at
Marburg
Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...
, the son of Marburg economics professor
Bruno Hildebrand. He studied at the
Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg, with
Kaspar von Zumbusch at the
Munich Academy and with
Rudolf Siemering in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. From 1873 he lived in
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
in the St Francesco Monastery, a secularized sixteenth-century monastery.
A friend of
Hans von Marées, he designed the architectural setting for the painter's murals in the library of the German Marine Zoological Institute at Naples (1873). He spent a significant amount of time in
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
after 1889, executing a monumental fountain there, the
Wittelsbacher Brunnen. He is known for five monumental urban fountains and for the
Bismarck monument in Bremen, unveiled in 1910.
Hildebrand worked in a Neo-classical tradition, and set out his artistic theories in his book ''Das Problem der Form in der Bildenden Kunst'' ("The Problem of Form in Painting and Sculpture"), published in 1893.
He was ennobled by the King of Bavaria in 1904.
He died in Munich in 1921.
Family
In 1877 he married Irene Schäuffelen. They were parents of the painter Eva, Elizabeth, sculptor
Irene Georgii-Hildebrand, Sylvie, Bertele, and Catholic theologian
Dietrich von Hildebrand. His great-grandson is environmental leader
Martin von Hildebrand.
Critical opinion
In 1917, the American sculptor, conservative critic and author
Lorado Taft
Lorado Zadok Taft (April 29, 1860 – October 30, 1936) was an American sculptor, writer and educator. Part of the American Renaissance movement, his monumental pieces include, ''Fountain of Time'', ''Spirit of the Great Lakes'', and ''The ...
, while bemoaning the direction the German sculpture was moving in, described Hildebrand as:
a master of the old school and Florentine tradition, whose example has been a constant gospel of good taste and sanity. Even today, when the whole world has gone after false gods, his influence continues to be felt and I wonder if the fact that in the midst of this revolution German sculpture, however fantastic, remains essentially sculpture, is not due largely to the life long precept and practice of this admirable representative of the craft.[Taft, Lorado, ‘’Modern Tendencies in Sculpture: The Scammon Lectures at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1917’’ University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1922 p. 53-54]
References
World Wide Art Resources* ''Dietrich von Hildebrand: the Soul of a Lion'', by Alice von Hildebrand (Ignatius, 2000)
* ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Vol. 11, pp 491–492 (1971)
External links
Problem of Form 1901/1918 ''Double Portrait of the Artist's Daughters'' in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hildebrand, Adolf Von
1847 births
1921 deaths
German modern sculptors
Adolf
Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo, and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name with German origins.
The name is a compound derived from the Old High German ''Athalwolf'' (or ''Hadulf''), a composition of ''athal'', or ''adal'', mean ...
People from the Electorate of Hesse
People from Marburg
Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg alumni
20th-century German sculptors
20th-century German male artists
German male sculptors
German untitled nobility
19th-century German sculptors
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)