Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
after Ernst Friedrich August Rietschel (1804-1861)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1848 - 1890
Materials
Plaster, paint
Measurements
600 x 380 x 260 mm
Order this imageCollection
Fenton House, London
NT 1449202
Summary
Gilt plaster bust of the composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847). Plaster cast after a marble bust by Ernst Friedrich August Rietschel (1804-1861), 1848. A head and shoulders bust in the neo-classical style, sitter is unclothed, looking to his left. Inscription beneath reads 'FELIX MENDELSSON BARTHOLDY'. On an round wooden waisted socle.
Full description
This bust of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy is a plaster cast of a marble bust by Ernst Friedrich August Rietschel. The original marble bust (now in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Institute) was commissioned from Rietschel by Mendelssohn’s family the year after the composer’s death for display in the family home. There are three other known versions of the bust in marble, signed and dated by Rietchel, in the collections of the Royal Collection, the Royal Academy of Music London, and the Staatsbibliothek / Mendelssohn-Archiv, Berlin. Rietchel trained under Christian Daniel Rauch (1777-1857), the leading Neoclassical sculptor in Germany; his training was further enhanced by his study of antique sculpture in Italy in 1830. The bust of Mendelssohn exemplifies the sculptor’s neoclassical training but also demonstrates his ability to introduce elements of naturalism; the lower half of the bust conforms to the antique type, however the head contrasts with the restraint of neo-classicism and is modelled with a great sense of individuality and naturalism. Anna Moore (December 2017)
Credit line
National Trust Collections (Fenton House)
Marks and inscriptions
Plaque above socle: FELIX MENDELSSON BARTHOLDY
Makers and roles
after Ernst Friedrich August Rietschel (1804-1861), sculptor
References
Walsh, John. 'Acquisitions/1986' in The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, Vol. 15 (1987) pp. 151-238, p. 220