Franz Iffland (1862–1935) was a German sculptor and painter who worked during the late 19th and early 20th century. He was born in 1862 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 ...

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

. The majority of his sculptures were influenced by the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

movement but late in his career, beginning in the mid-1920s, he produced a number of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

sculptures. Iffland died in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in 1935.

Early career

Iffland received his formal training at the ''Königliche akademische Hochschule für die Bildenden Künste''. He was primarily known for his small

bronze statues Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as well as bronze elements t ...

of young children and bust sculptures of young women. He was a

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

as well, however sculpture dominated his output during his career.

Artistic style

The majority of his work was produced during the

or "jugendstil" period from 1887 to 1910, but late in his career he produced a number of art deco bronzes of nude women and genre statues of ordinary working people such as

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

s and farmers. One of Iffland's contemporaries, who worked during the same period as Iffland in Berlin and did similar types of sculptures, was Otto Schmidt-Hofer. Iffland also executed a few animal sculptures and sporting figure statues of

archers Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...

javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon. Today, the javelin is predominantly used for sporting purposes such as the javelin throw. The javelin is nearly always thrown by hand, unlike the sling ...

throwers, and

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

players. He presented his work in bronze at the ''Große Berliner Kunstaustellung'' (Great Berlin Art Exhibition) in 1893. Iffland typically applied dark brown patinas to his smaller bronzes but often elected to apply more elaborate patination to larger works intended for exhibition in art shows. A number of his more important statues featured gilt patinas in real 24 carat gold. Iffland's chryséléphantine pieces tend to bring the best prices at auction. One such example was ''Columbine'' which fetched $8,372 in a sale on 7 November 2007 at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

, London, South Kensington. Iffland employed a number of foundries to cast his bronzes, including the Kraas foundry in Berlin. Many of his sculptures bear the Kraas foundry mark.

Death and legacy

Iffland died in 1935 in Berlin, Germany. He is remembered as one of Germany's finest sculptors during the late 19th and early 20th century.

Gallery

References

Literature

Franz Iffland. Ulrich Thieme; Felix Becker – Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Band 18, E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1925, S. 549. {{DEFAULTSORT:Iffland, Franz Painters from Berlin Sculptors from Berlin 1862 births 1935 deaths 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists 19th-century German sculptors German male sculptors