[Born at Berlin, 1764. Died there, 1850. Aged 86.]
The son of a poor tailor. He evinced, at an early age, a great love for the fine arts, but he was one of many children, and there was small hope of gratifying fine-art tastes in the needy household. Fortune brought the youngster in contact with a sculptor, who taught him drawing, and from that moment his destiny was fixed. Whilst receiving instruction, he ran off with a girl to whom he was attached, married her at Vienna, and with the consent and at the expense of his stepfather, proceeded to Rome. There for two years he laboured hard as a sculptor, in the Vatican and in the Capitol. In 1788, he had already advanced far enough to be appointed Court Sculptor at Berlin. In 1822, he was made Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in the same city. His works, numerous and of a high order, are found in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany. He was one of the first who opposed to the insipid and conventional idealism of the eighteenth century, a vigorous and truthful representation of nature, heightened by noble intellectuality. This is especially visible in his portrait statues. He was a worthy precursor of Rauch, who is one of his most famous followers. To his eldest son, Rudolph Schadow, also a distinguished sculptor, belong the specimens of modern sculpture which appear under the name of Schadow in this collection. The second son, Wilhelm Schadow, is one of the most celebrated painters in Germany, and President of the Academy at Düsseldorf. Both have a greater name as artists than the father.
[By Rauch, 1811. Plaster. The original is in the studio of Rauch.]
320. Albert Bartholomäus Thorwaldsen. Sculptor.
[Born 1770. Died 1844. Aged 74.]
He was born, as he said, at Copenhagen: some say in Iceland: some at sea, between. His father, an Icelander, was employed in carving heads for ships in the Royal Dockyard, on which the great sculptor practised his young hand: his mother was a priest’s daughter. He was educated, as all the children of workmen, in the Holm, or dockyard, at the King’s expense. At 11, Thorwaldsen was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. At 17, he first secured attention, and gained the small silver medal; at 19, the large. At 21, he won the small, at 23, the large gold medal. His birthday he did not know, but he called it March 8th, the day of his arriving at Rome in 1796. In the Eternal City he addicted himself to the antique. He brought introductions to Zoega the Dane, then living at Rome, a learned and antiquarian connoisseur. Zoega dealt kindly and hardly with the young sculptor, severely criticizing his labours; and Thorwaldsen, under his critic’s censure, and from his own dissatisfaction, destroyed numerous attempts. His first “Jason with the Golden Fleece,” of the natural size, made no impression, and he broke it in pieces. He made it again, 81⁄2 feet high. It secured general admiration, and this time he did not destroy his work. He had, however, made up his mind to go home; his small preparation was completed; Jason was to be sent after him; but a mistake in a passport created a day’s delay. During the short interval, Thomas Hope, a well-known name in England, entered the artist’s studio, and saw the “Jason.” The price was asked. “Six hundred zecchini.” “I will give eight hundred,” answered Thomas Hope. Thorwaldsen stopped in Rome, and now began and went on, his mightier career. His chief works are classical subjects—some Christian, to which he drew late in life. The most popular of all his productions is the bas-relief of “Priam and Achilles.” In 1819, he returned to Copenhagen, but not permanently until 1838. In Rome he was the friend of Canova, who acknowledged his merit. His health was often very weak, and he died suddenly at a theatre. He was simple in his manners, and beloved. In fire and grandeur he resembled Michael Angelo. The old Scandinavian energetic blood rolled in his veins. The family tradition made him descended from one of those early warrior-kings: a more glorious, innocent conqueror.
[By Rauch. Plaster. 1816. Done at Rome. A fine artist-like head. The original is in the studio of Rauch.]
321. Ludwig van Beethoven. Musical Composer.
[Born at Bonn, in Rhenish Prussia, 1770. Died at Vienna, 1827. Aged 57.]
This great composer was taught music from his childhood; but it was not until his twelfth year that he at all developed his genius. Sent to Vienna, he was placed there under the care of the Chapel-Master, Albrechtsberger, in spite of whose cold and conventional instruction he advanced in knowledge and strength, and excited general attention by his extraordinary gift of improvisation, and marvellous execution. In 1805, he composed “Fidelio;” then followed his oratorio of “Christ on the Mount of Olives,” the “Heroic” and “Pastoral” symphonies, and his pianoforte Concertos. At this time Beethoven had scarcely the means of subsistence, and to save him from want, a pension of four thousand florins was settled upon him by the Austrian government. He fixed his abode at the village of Baden, near Vienna, and his life became one of retirement and self-nurture. He composed his music in his solitary rambles. The wildest scenery to him was the choicest, for he shrank from intercourse with men. His habits were known and respected. He died unmarried. From his twenty-sixth year he had been deaf; but he was otherwise robust. He was passionately fond of Scott’s romances, and these works, with the “Odyssey” of Homer, were his consolations during the illness of which he died. His fertility and variety of production are marvellous. The passionate soul of melody possessed him. His works are rich in harmony, tinctured it may be with the delicate mysticism that ruled his genius in its silent haunts.