Friedrich Goldscheider

FRIEDRICH GOLDSCHEIDER (Pilsen, Bohemia, 1845 - Vienna, Austria, 1897).
"Rebecca," 1903.
Patinated terracotta.
It has slight pitting on the base.
It has stamps on the base.
Measurements: 95 x 40 x 25 cm.
Terracotta sculpture with a nuanced golden patina, representing Rebecca, wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob and Esau. It is a slender young woman, with idealized features, close to the ethereal nymphs of Art Nouveau. Also the position, elegant and graceful, slightly inclined, and the face of melancholic and sweet tone, link directly with a more ornamental aesthetic, typical of modernism.
In 1885, the sculptor Friedrich Goldscheider left his native Pilsen and settled in Vienna, where he founded his own manufactory of terracotta pieces. He soon became one of the most influential artists in the fields of ceramics and bronze, with stores in Austria, Paris, Leipzig, Berlin and Florence. For more than half a century the Goldscheider firm, considered the best modernist terracotta factory, created masterpieces of historicism, Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The founder was able to attract both acclaimed artists and young innovators to his factory, so that great ceramists of the time, such as W. Bosse, B. Geiger, J. Lorenzl, I. Meisinger and M. Powolny, among others, worked there. After Goldscheider's death, the factory was taken over by his widow Regina, who continued to produce her husband's models, along with new ones created by artists who worked for the firm, such as D. Chiparus during the Art Deco period. Until its closure with the rise of National Socialism, the factory produced more than four thousand different models, both by Goldscheider himself and other authors. From the beginning, the factory won a multitude of awards, first prizes and gold medals at countless world fairs, exhibitions and trade fairs. Today its pieces are in great demand by collectors from all over the world. They can currently be admired in various museums around the world, such as the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York or the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. In 2007, Goldscheider's pieces were exhibited at the Vienna Museum and the following year at the LBI in New York.