Viktor Oskar Tilgner

Viktor Oskar Tilgner (25 October 1844 in Pressburg – 16 April 1896 in Vienna) was an Austrian sculptor and medailleur.^[1]

Life

He was the son of Captain Carl Tilgner. The family moved to Vienna when he was a child. His talent was recognized early by the sculptor Franz Schönthaler [de], who became his first teacher. Then, at the Academy of Fine Arts, he studied under Franz Bauer and Josef Gasser.^[1] Later, he was attracted to engraving and worked with the medailleur Joseph Daniel Böhm [de]. One of Tilgner's student's was German sculptor John Walz.^[2]

He belonged to the circle of artists around Count Karol Lanckoroński. During the World Exhibition of 1873, he met the French sculptor Gustave Deloye, who strongly influenced his work.^[3] The following year, he took a trip to Italy with Hans Makart, whose "realistic academicism" also influenced Tilgner's style. For the last twenty years of his life, he had a large studio in what was originally a greenhouse at the Palais Schwarzenberg^[4]

Despite a long-standing heart condition and recurring chest pain, he spent a strenuous day working on his Mozart monument, to get it ready on schedule.^[4] He died of a heart attack the next morning. Often considered to be his greatest work, the monument was unveiled a few days after his death. The bulk of his estate was bequeathed to his hometown and is now on display at the Bratislava City Gallery.

Selected major works

• Statue of Leopold V, Duke of Austria at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum
• Statue of Peter Paul Rubens at the Künstlerhaus
• Statue of Peter Paul Rubens at the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah, Georgia
• Statue of Raphael at the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah, Georgia
• Statues at the Kunsthistorisches Museum: Christian Daniel Rauch, Peter von Cornelius and Moritz von Schwind.
• Statues at the Naturhistorisches Museum: Alexander von Humboldt, Leopold von Buch, Isaac Newton and Carl Linnaeus.
• Statues at the Austrian Parliament building: Archimedes, Marcus Terentius Varro, Homer and Phidias.
• Statues at the Telfair Academy building: Phidias,^[5] Raphael^[6] and Rembrandt^[7]
• Figures at the Burgtheater: Don Juan, Phaidra, Falstaff, Hanswurst, William Shakespeare, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Molière, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Friedrich Hebbel, Franz Grillparzer and Karl Felix Halm.
• Monument for Josef Werndl, Steyr
• Monument for Anton Bruckner in the Stadtpark. Due to vandalism, the female figure was removed and replaced with a simple pedestal.
• Monument for Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Bratislava
• Monument for Dr Johann Nepomuk Prix, Wiener Zentralfriedhof
• Monument for Franz Liszt, Ödenburg

• 
  Peter Paul Rubens
• 
  Hummel Monument
• 
  Werndl Monument
• 
  Bruckner Monument, original version
• 
  Carl Linnaeus
• 
  Dr Johann Nepomuk Prix Monument
• 
  Phidias

References

Further reading

• Gerhardt Kapner: Ringstraßendenkmäler. In: Renate Wagner-Rieger, Die Wiener Ringstraße. Bild einer Epoche. Die Erweiterung der Inneren Stadt Wien unter Kaiser Franz Joseph. Vol.9,1. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1973,
• Maria Pötzl-Malikova: Die Plastik der Ringstraße. Künstlerische Entwicklung 1890–1918. In: Renate Wagner-Rieger, Die Wiener Ringstraße. Bild einer Epoche. Die Erweiterung der Inneren Stadt Wien unter Kaiser Franz Joseph. Vol.9,2. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1976, ISBN 3-515-02391-7.
• Walter Krause: Die Plastik der Ringstraße von der Spätromantik bis zur Wende um 1900. In: Renate Wagner-Rieger: Die Wiener Ringstraße. Bild einer Epoche. Die Erweiterung der Inneren Stadt Wien unter Kaiser Franz Joseph. Vol.9,3. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1980, ISBN 3-515-03288-6.
• Contribution by Walter Krause in: Jane Turner: The Dictionary of Art. Vol.30: Summonte to Tinne. Grove, New York 1996, ISBN 1-884446-00-0, pgs.888–890.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Viktor Tilgner.

• Feuilleton. Victor Tilgner. In: Neue Freie Presse, 19 April 1896, p. 01 (Online at ANNO)Template:ANNO/Maintenance/nfp.
• Victor Tilgner. In: Der Architekt, Year 1896, p. 20 (Hauptteil). (Online bei ANNO)Template:ANNO/Maintenance/arc.
• Bundesdenkmalamt Österreich: Hauptwerk von Viktor Tilgner gerettet. Wiener Zentralfriedhof. Allegorie der Bildhauerei
• Ludwig Hevesi: Obituary in Wiener Totentanz online

This page was last edited on 28 March 2024, at 04:36