CISEAU for FREDERIC GOLDSCHEIDER (Pilsen, Bohemia, 1845 - Vienna, Austria, 1897). Austria, ca. 1900.
"Dutch peasant girl".
Polychrome terracotta.
Signed "Ciseau" on the back of the base. Marks and numbering on the back.
Measurements: 55 x 23 x 12 cm.
Ornamental sculpture made in terracotta mould and polychromed in warm tones, framed by its subject matter and formal aspects within modernism, and can be dated around 1900. It represents a character of popular inspiration, a peasant girl wearing a wide cloak, although she is a slender young woman with idealised features, closer to the ethereal nymphs of Art Nouveau than to the peasant women of realism. The elegant, graceful, slightly inclined pose and the melancholy, gentle face are also directly linked to a more ornamental aesthetic typical of Art Nouveau.
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 shops in Austria, Paris, Leipzig, Berlin and Florence. For more than half a century the Goldscheider firm, considered the finest 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, together with new ones created by the 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 by other authors. From the very beginning, the factory won numerous awards, first prizes and gold medals at countless world fairs, exhibitions and trade fairs. Today its pieces are in great demand by collectors all over the world. They can now be admired in museums around the world, such as the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. In 2007, Goldscheider's works were shown at the Vienna Museum and the following year at the LBI in New York.