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[Wenzel]

(b Ehrenbreitstein, Nov 23, 1775; d Weimar, Oct 4, 1845).

German architect. He worked under Christian Friedrich Schuricht in Dresden in the 1790s before studying in Paris at the Ecole Polytechnique (1800–04) under Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand; he visited Rome in 1804–5. Most of his life was spent in Weimar, where he was appointed Oberbaudirektor (1816) to the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, one of the smaller and poorer of the German states, for which most of his work was undertaken. This included the Erfurter Tor (1822–4), the Bürgerschule (1822–5), the Wagenremise (1823) and the Hoftheater (1825–9; destr. 1905), plain buildings strongly influenced by Durand. Coudray also founded a school for building workers, the Freie Gewerkschule (1829). Weimar’s most eminent citizen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, took a close interest in Coudray’s work, including his only major Greek Revival building, the Fürstengruft (1823–7). This mausoleum was commissioned by Grand Duke ...

(b Breslau, Silesia [now Wrocław, Poland], Feb 5, 1766; d Berlin, Oct 3, 1811).

German architect. He studied drawing and architecture in Berlin from 1782 under Karl Philipp Christian von Gontard and Asmus Jakob Carstens. Between 1790 and 1795 he travelled to Italy, England and France, spending three years in Rome and studying Greek temples at Paestum and in Sicily. From 1798 he was Professor of Civic Design at the newly founded Bauakademie in Berlin and in 1810 was appointed Court Building Adviser. Together with his brother-in-law Friedrich Gilly (see Gilly family, §2) and Carl Gotthard Longhans, Gentz was the most prominent representative of Neo-classicism in Prussia prior to Karl Friedrich Schinkel. His chief work was the Royal Mint (1798–1800; destr. 1886), Berlin, which also housed the Bauakademie and the Chief Building Department until 1836. The cuboid corps de logis had a battered and rusticated lower floor surmounted by a frieze carved in sandstone and bronzed to a design by ...

(b Copenhagen, Jan 21, 1801; d Christiania [now Oslo], March 4, 1865).

Norwegian architect of Danish birth. He was educated at the Royal School of Design in Christiania, where his father, Heinrich August Grosch (1763–1843), a landscape painter and engraver of German origin, worked as an instructor. From 1820 to 1824 Christian Heinrich studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Art under C. F. Hansen. On his return to Christiania, he worked as a draughtsman under Hans Ditlev Franciscus Linstow from 1824 to 1827, and in 1828 he was appointed City Architect of Christiania, where he also served as a teacher at the Royal School of Design. In 1814 Norway had been liberated from Danish rule, and although the country was still united with Sweden under a common king, its new political status created a need for public buildings. Grosch was therefore soon awarded important public commissions in Christiania, of which the first was the state hospital (1826–42; destr.). He demonstrated a secure grasp of the classical idiom in the Stock Exchange (...

(b Belgern, nr Leipzig, 1741; d c. 1806).

German cabinetmaker. By 1770 he was established as a master cabinetmaker in Leipzig. An important early patron was the art dealer Karl Christian Heinrich Rost (1742–98), who commissioned furniture closely based on French and English models. In 1788 Hoffman obtained a loan to extend his business in Leipzig and a subsidiary workshop at Eilenburg; his total workforce was 16 tradesmen. In 1789, after a dispute with the local guild of cabinetmakers, he published his first pattern book, Abbildungen der vornehmsten Tischlerarbeiten, welche verfertiget und zu haben sind bey Friedrich Gottlob Hoffmann, wohnhaft auf dem alten Neumarkt in Leipzig, an anthology of designs for household furniture, mostly inspired by the Louis XVI Neo-classical style. In 1795 he produced a second catalogue, Neues Verzeichnis und Muster-Charte des Meubles-Magazin, in which English design types are dominant. A number of pieces corresponding to plates in these two pattern books have been identified (e.g. sofa, ...

[Maler Müller]

(b Kreuznach, Jan 13, 1749; d Rome, April 23, 1825).

German painter, engraver, draughtsman, poet and Playwright. From about 1765 he was taught by Daniel Hien (1724–73), court painter to Christian IV, Duke of Zweibrücken, with 17th-century Dutch painting as his model. Müller showed a talent for realistic depiction of animals, especially horses, and landscape, including farm scenes. The Duke gave him an allowance so that, from 1769, he was able to attend the Mannheim Akademie. Müller’s friendship there with Ferdinand Kobell and Franz Kobell (1749–1822) led to a considerable mutual influence in the work of all three. Müller also established himself as a poet at this time, becoming one of the representatives of the late 18th-century German literary movement known as Sturm und Drang. In the course of the 1770s Müller wrote a celebrated series of idylls, the lyric drama Niobe and the first parts of his Fausts Leben dramatisiert, all issued in editions with his own engraved illustrations. Life drawings and etchings from this period are in Mannheim (Städt. Reiss-Mus.), Frankfurt am Main (Goethemus.) and Monaco-Ville (Archvs Pal. Princier). At this time, however, Müller’s work as a poet and dramatist was more widely known and admired than his work as an artist. His study of the famous collection of casts of antique sculptures in the Antikensaal at Mannheim, and of paintings in the picture gallery belonging to the Elector ...

[Buix, José Domingo ]

(b Petrés, Valencia, June 9, 1759; d 1811).

Spanish architect and Capuchin monk, active in Colombia. He trained with his father, the stonemason Domingo Buix. Joining the Capuchin Order in 1780, he was sent to Murcia, where he studied at an art school directed by Francisco Salzillo y Alcarez. In 1792 he was posted to Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia, where he took over and concluded the work on the hospice of S José and quickly achieved a well-deserved renown in the viceroyalty of New Granada. He provided designs for S Domingo, Bogotá (1794), and the basilica of the Virgin of Chiquinquirá (1796–1823), where his use of an ambulatory recalls the work of Diego de Siloé at Granada. He designed Bogotá observatory (1802) and the cathedral of Zipaquirá (1805), 40 km north of the capital, but his masterpiece is Bogotá Cathedral (1806–14), which he rebuilt in the Neo-classical style. Petrés also undertook civil engineering work, such as the conduits and basin for the fountain of S Victoriano, and several bridges, including that of El Topo at Tunja (...

(d La Paz, 1834).

Catalan architect, active in Bolivia. He was a Franciscan friar and the leading architect in Bolivia between 1800 and 1830 (see Bolivia, Republic of §II 2., (i)). In 1808 he was called to Potosí to design the cathedral in a predominantly Neo-classical style coexisting with reminiscences of the Baroque. There were brief interruptions in its construction, and it was not finished until 1838. In Potosí he also redesigned the church of S Domingo. He interrupted his work there to execute the principal altar (1820) of the church of La Merced, Cuzco, and a new retable (1830) for the church of La Merced, La Paz. Shortly after he commenced work on a new cathedral for La Paz (for illustration see La Paz), although only the ground storey was completed before his death; the works were continued by the French engineer Philippe Bertrès and completed in the early 20th century by ...

(b Berlin, Aug 14, 1776; d Berlin, May 12, 1851).

German sculptor. He was initially apprenticed to Christian Friedrich Heinrich Siegismund Bettkober (1746–1809), while simultaneously attending drawing-classes at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin under Johann Gottfried Schadow, to whose studio he moved in 1794. His brother Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853), the Romantic poet, introduced him to the literary circle of the Romantics. From 1798 he spent three years in Paris, where he entered Louis David’s studio. In 1801, on his return journey, he met Goethe in Weimar and sculpted his portrait bust (Weimar, Goethe-Nmus. Frauenplan). Through Goethe’s mediation, he received the commission for decorative relief panels (e.g. the Prince as Protector of the Arts and Sciences, 1801–5; all in situ) for the Schloss in Weimar. In 1805 he won a scholarship to Rome, where he met Christian Daniel Rauch and they began a friendship that would be decisive for the future direction of Tieck’s life. In Carrara between ...

( Julius )

(b Brandenburg an der Havel, June 5, 1804; d Berlin, Jan 21, 1891).

German sculptor . He studied under the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch from November 1823 and at the Akademie in Berlin under Johann Gottfried Schadow. Among his early sculptures are Anatomy (ex-Berlin, Akad. Kst.; destr.) and the Wounded Philoctetes. In 1827 he moved to Rome where he was in close contact with the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen and achieved recognition with his statue of Ganymede as a Shepherd Boy (marble, 1828–30; Potsdam, Schloss Charlottenhof). This nude figure combines classical austerity with the more sentimental and naturalistic approach derived from the Berlin tradition of sculpture; with its soft flesh tints and supple structure, it effectively humanized the accepted sculptural style. Wredow’s approach was similar in Paris Arming Himself for Battle (marble, c. 1833–4) and in Praying Boy (1831–2; both Potsdam, Orangerie) and other classical figures. During the preparation of these works he spent most of his time in Italy (Carrara and Rome) and stayed there until he settled permanently in Berlin in ...