Peter Fuchs (1829–1898) was a German

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Biography

From 1844 to 1849 Peter Fuchs was an apprentice mason in the

Cologne Dombauhütte Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

and for the next two years he worked as a mason for St. Nicolai in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

and in the studio of Vincenz Statz in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. From 1851 to 1854 he worked in

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ; ; ), historically known in English as Spires, is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in the western part of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the r ...

with the sculptor Gottfried Renn (1818–1880) and in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

with

Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz Nikolaus Karl Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz (born Nikolaus Karl Eduard Launitz; 23 November 1797 – 12 December 1869) was a German sculptor. Biography Launitz was born a Baltic German in Grobin, Courland, which was then part of the Russian Em ...

(1797–1869) and

Eduard Jakob von Steinle Eduard von Steinle (2 July 1810 – 19 September 1886) was a painter and a printmaker. He was born in 1810 in Vienna, Austria and died in 1886 in Frankfurt, Germany. He spent 1828-33 in Rome with similar artists from the Nazarene school befo ...

. In 1855 Peter Fuchs returned to Cologne, where he created such large

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

reliefs and statue groups as the

Four Prophets ''Four Prophets: Amos, Hosea, First Isaiah and Micah: A Modern Translation from the Hebrew by J. B. Phillips'' is a modern translation from Hebrew sources of the books of Amos, Hosea, First Isaiah and Micah by scholar John Bertram Phillips, J. B. ...

(1858) for the

Mariensäule The Mariensäule (lit. 'Mary's Column') is a Marian and Holy Trinity columns, Marian column located on the Marienplatz in Munich, Germany. Mary is revered here as '':de:Patrona Bavariae, Patrona Bavariae'' (Latin: Protector of Bavaria). Histo ...

in the Gereonsdriesch and the life-size figures of SS Dionysius and

Reinold Reinold (also known as Reinoldus, Reinhold of Cologne or in German Reinhold von Köln) was a Benedictine monk who lived in the 10th century. Supposedly a direct descendant of Charlemagne, and the fourth son mentioned in the romantic poem Duke Ay ...

(1866–1871) for the west front of St. Mauritius. From 1865 to 1881 he produced some 700 life-size and slightly over-life-size sculptures for

Cologne Cathedral Cologne Cathedral (, , officially , English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia belonging to the Catholic Church. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archd ...

, mostly reliefs and seated and standing figures depicting scenes from the Bible and lives of the saints. Many of these are to be found on the columns and walls of the south transept (1866–1872), the west towers (1871), the west front and the north front (1879–1881) and the Petersportal (1881). Several preliminary drawings (1879–1880) for uncompleted sculptures are located in the Dombauarchiv. Influenced by the Nazarenes, after 1870 Peter Fuchs lengthened his figures and encased them in garments with sharp-edged, graphic folds. He was also influenced by the work of contemporary German sculptors working in the monumental style, as can be seen in the rendering of naturalistic heads and pathetic expression and in the isolation of the figures from each other. The reliefs and statues of Old and New Testament prophets (1895–1898) from the tympanum and the bronze doors of the west front of

Bremen Cathedral Bremen Cathedral (), named after St. Peter, is a church situated in the market square in the center of Bremen. The cathedral belongs to the Bremian Evangelical Church, a member of the umbrella organization Evangelical Church in Germany. It ...

, with their attenuated stances and pronounced folds of drapery, show his debt to the figures in Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise (Florence, Mus. Opera Duomo) and to the sculptures of the

Beuron Art School The Beuron school was an art movement founded by a confederation of Benedictine monks in Germany in the late 19th century.''The Revival of Medieval Illumination: Nineteenth-Century Belgium Manuscripts and Illuminations from a European Perspective' ...

of the last third of the 19th century.

References

*Peter Fuchs." The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Oxford University Press, Inc., 2002. Answers.com 08 Aug. 2008
www.answers.com

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20110719052807/http://www.koeln-kh-augustinerinnen.de/view.php?nid=172&page=2 * http://www.heimatfreunde.de/Der_Heimatfreund/2003-II.pdf * http://www.dombau-koeln.de/inhalt/08_bericht/download.php?id=50 * http://www.stadt-koeln.de/fifawm2006/presse/downloads/stadtportrait/koelner_dom.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Peter 1829 births 1898 deaths 19th-century German sculptors German male sculptors