Louis Tuaillon, Friedrich der Grosse

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Price: € 18.000

Description

‘Friedrich de Grosse’ (‘Frederick the Great’)
Bronze, conceived in 1910.
Height 56 cm.
Smaller cast of the monument by Tuaillon revealed in 1910 in the city of Beuthen (now Poland). The monument, cast by Hermann Noack, was destroyed in 1945.

Louis Tuaillon, ‘Friedrich de Grosse’ (‘Frederick the Great’). Revealed in presence of Kaiser Wilhelm II at 26 November 1910 in the city of Beuthen (now Poland). The monument once located in front of the Oberrealschule and the Konzerthaus, is lost.
Left:  revelation at 26 November 1910.  Kaiser Wilhem II in conversation with Louis Tuaillon and de mayor of Beuthen. The choice for Tuallion as the artist to execute the monument, was instigated by the Kaiser.
Right: mine workers from Silesia at the revelation (below).
   

The monument by Tuaillon, depicted on old postcards.
Left: in front of the Oberrealschule and the Konzerthaus.
   

Left: ‘Friedrich der Grosse’ by Tuaillon, bronze. Displayed at the ‘Eröffnungsausstellung des Kunstsalons Paul Cassirer’, Berlin 1913. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für Alle’, 1913.
Right: Louis Tuaillon, ‘Entwurf zum Denkmal Friedrichs des Grossen für Beuthen’. Depicted on the cover of ‘Das Bild ‘, January/ February 1940.
 

– condition : II
– size : Height 56 cm, width 54 cm
– signed : At base ‘L. TUAILLON’. With foundry mark ‘H. NOACK BERLIN’ *
– type : bronze. Complete with second sword at the right side (often missing)
  • With inscription: ‘Herrn Bergassessor Schulz, Director der Zeche Hugo, Harpener Bergbau A.G., Dortmund 1 Juli 1940’ (‘Mining Official Mr. Schulz, Director of the Coal Mine Hugo, Harpener Bergbau A.G., Dortmund 1 July 1940’).

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BIOGRAPHY: LOUIS TUAILLON

Louis Tuaillon. ‘Herkules mit dem Stier’ (‘Hercues capturing the Cretan Bull’). Placed by Albert Speer in the garden of the Neue Reichskanzlei. The sculpture is lost.
The Cretan Bull was a bull that appeared in the myth of the Labours of Heracles, as well as the myth of the Minotaur, in Greek mythology. It was the creature that Pasiphae fell in love with, and became impregnated by, eventually giving birth to the Minotaur. During the Labours of Heracles, King Eurystheus sent Heracles to capture the Cretan Bull and bring it back. The hero went to Crete and acquired permission by King Minos, who was happy to get rid of the animal that had destroyed the crops of the region. Heracles managed to capture the animal with his bare hands, and sent it back to Eurystheus. The king was so afraid of the animal that he hid inside a large jar upon seeing it. He later said to sacrifice it to Hera, but the goddess refused, thinking it would give further glory to Heracles. Instead, Eurystheus let it loose, which reached Marathon and acquired the name Marathonian Bull. Later, Theseus, son of the king of Athens Aegeus, set forth to capture the bull. He went to Marathon and indeed successfully caught it. He then returned to Athens where he sacrificed it to Athena or Apollo.
Left: photo depicted in ‘Die Kust im Dritten Reich’, 1939.
 

‘Herkules mit dem Stier’ by Tuaillon, displayded at the ‘XIII. Ausstellung der Berliner Secession’, 1907. Plaster model. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für Alle’, 1907.
 

Louis Tuaillon, ‘Stiertreiben’ (‘Driving Bulls’), 1913. Large bronze relief, located on the facade of the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld.

‘Stiertreiben’ by Tuaillon, plaster. Displayed at the ‘Berliner Herbst Ausstellung der Secession’, 1913. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für Alle’.

Left: ‘Amazone’ by Tuaillon. Nowadays located in the Kollonadenhof, Museuminsel, Berlin (previously located on the östliche Vorgarten of the Alten Nationalgalerie).
Right: ‘Amazone’ by Tuaillon, photographed in the winter on the östliche Vorgarten of the Alten Nationalgalerie.
   

Left: Louis Tuaillon, ‘Amazone’. Displayed at the ‘Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung’, 1895. Bought by the National Galerie, Berlin, in 1896. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für Alle’, 1897/98.
Right: ‘Amazone’ by Tuaillon, located on the grounds of Huis Doorn, The Netherlands. Cast by Lauchammer after 2000, -the original cast was stolen in 2000.
Huis Doorn was the residence-in-exile (1920–1941) of Kaiser Willem II following his abdication after WWI. It is a manor house and national museum in the town of Doorn in the Netherlands; the residence is appointed with early 20th century interior. Between September 1919 and February 1922, five trains pulling 59 carriages transported 30.000 objects to The Netherlands from Wilhelm’s palaces in Berlin and Potsdam to furnish Huis Doorn.
   

A cast of Amazon by Tuaillon in the Cecilienhof Palace (Schloss Cecilienhof), Potsdam.
German Emperor Wilhelm II had Cecilienhof Palace built for his son Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife, Crown Princess Cecilie. It was the last palace built by the Hohenzollern dynasty that ruled Germany until 1918. After WWI Cecilienhof became property of the state but a right of residence was granted to Wilhelm and Cecilie. Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife left Cecilienhof early 1945.
The use for the Potsdam Conference in mid-1945, made Cecilienhof world famous. The room shown below, was the room used by US president Truman in 1945.
   

‘Amazone’ by Tuaillon, more then life-size aftercast. Commissioned by Kaiser Willem II in 1906. Located at the Floraplatz in Tiergarten, Berlin.
   

1946, a first attempt to reconstruct the Floraplatz. Originally the Amazone by Tuaillon was surrounded by 8 statues of animals, aftercasts of the 8 animals figures designed in 1897 for the Georg Washington Monument in Philadelphia by Rudolf Siemering. The Bull and the Bear, lost in WWII, were cast again in the 2010s based on 3D Scans of the Monument in Philadelphia, and replaced at the Floraplatz. 

Louis Tuaillon, ‘Reiterdenkmal Kaiser Wilhelm I’, city of Lubeck. The model is from 1914, but the statue was not cast before 1919, because of the lack of bronze during WWI.
   

Louis Tuaillon, ‘Statue of Wilhelm II’, 1910. Located next to the Hohenzollernbrücke in Cologne. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für Alle’, 1910/11, and described as following: ‘the Kaiser in Gardes du Corps-Uniform, with armour and eagle-helmet, wearing the Order ‘Pour le Mérite’; in his right hand the Field Marshall Baton’. 

Left: Louis Tuaillon, ‘Kaiser Wilhelm II’, located in Wuppertal in front of a hotel. Donated at 14 July 1914 by  the ‘Geheime Kommerzienrat’ Freiherr August von der Heydt to the city of Elberfeld (now Wuppertal). Originally located in the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, later in the Städtische Museum (now Von-der-Heydt-Museum).
Right: the plaster cast displayed at the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung in 1911; depicted in the exhibition catalog.
   

Louis Tuaillon, ‘Statue of Friedrich III of Germany’, 1911. Located next to the Hohenzollernbrücke in Cologne.

Louis Tuaillon, ‘Der Sieger’ (‘The Victor’), 1899. Located on the Steubenplatz, Berlin. Created for the residence of Geheimrat Hans Arnhold in Wannsee-Berlin. Placed in 1961 on the Steubenplatz. The laurel branche in his left hand is lost. Restored in 1997.
 

Louis Tuaillon, ‘Rosselenker’ (‘Leading a Horse’), 1902. Located in the city of Bremen. Cast by R. Polzoni in Rome. Located at the Bischofstor beneath the Theaterberg. The monument was a gift from the Bremen merchant Franz E. Schütte and was erected on the 20th March 1902. During World War II, the bronze group was located in the Kunsthalle, and from 1951 to 1953 it remained in the  the Übersee-Museum. ‘Rosselenker’ was moved back to its original location on the 22nd May 1953.

Louis Tuaillon, ‘Hungarian Stier’, marble. Ceated from 1914 – 1919  (last work by Tuaillon). Weight 6000 kg. Bought by industrialist Eduard Arnhold (1849 – 1925) for 100,000 Goldmark (nowadays 800.000 Euro).
Current location: the Kurpark of Bad Freienwalde.
The future location of the stier, confiscated in 1949 by the German Democratic Republic, is uncertain; the marble is lawfully claimed by the hiers of Arnhold and Clewing.

‘Stier’ by Tuaillon, displayed at the ‘Frühjahrs-Ausstellung 1919′, of the ‘Akademie der Künste zu Berlin’ (‘Stier. Marmor. Besitz von Geh. Kommerzienrat E. Arnhold’). Depicted in the exhibton catalog.
   

Louis Tuaillon, ‘Herkules und der Erymantische Eber’ (‘Hercules and the Erymanthian Boar’). Placed on the Lützowplatz, Berlin-Tiergarten, at 29 September 1967. The original model is from 1899/00. The cast at the Lützowplatz is likely from the 1930s.
In Greek mythology, the Erymanthian boar was a mythical creature that took the form of a tameless boar of vast weight and foaming jaws. It was a Tegeaean, Maenalusian or Erymanthian boar that lived in the Glens of Lampeia beside the vast marsh of Erymanthus. It would sally from the thick-wooded cypress-bearing heights of Erymanthus to harry the groves of Arcady and abuse the land of Psophis. The fourth labour of Heracles was to bring the Erymanthian boar alive to Eurystheus in Mycenae. To capture the boar, Heracles first chased the boar with shouts and thereby routed it from a certain thicket and then drove the exhausted animal into deep snow. He then trapped it, bound it in chains, and lifted it, still breathing from the dust, and returning with the boar on his left shoulder, staining his back with blood from the stricken wound, he cast it down in the entrance to the assembly of the Mycenaeans, thus completing his fourth labour. When king Eurystheus saw him carrying the boar on his shoulders, he was terrified and hid himself in a bronze vessel.
   

A small bronze cast of 49 cm height, sold by Christies Amsterdam in 2010.

Louis Tuaillon, ‘Kaiser Friedrich III’, 1905. Located in Bremen, Herrmann Böse Strasse. Frederick III (1831 – 1888) was German Emperor and King of Prussia for ninety-nine days in 1888, the Year of the Three Emperors. Known informally as ‘Fritz’ he was the only son of Emperor Wilhelm I and was raised in his family’s tradition of military service. Although celebrated as a young man for his leadership and successes during the Second Schleswig, Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars, he nevertheless professed a hatred of warfare and was praised by friends and enemies alike for his humane conduct. Following the unification of Germany in 1871 his father, then King of Prussia, became the German Emperor.
 

‘Kaiser Friedrich’ by Tuaillon, depicted in ‘Bildgiesserei NOACK, -Veröffentlichungen des Kunstarchives nr. 47’, 1927.

Louis Tuaillon, ‘Reiterstandbild König Friedrich Wilhelm III’ (‘Rider-statue of King Wilhelm III’), 1918. One of the last works by Tuaillon. Placed in the Schlossgarten of the city of Merseburg in 1935.   

The ‘Reiterstandbild König Friedrich Wilhelm III’, located between the ruins of the St. Sixti Church in Merseburg, 1995 (founded in 1945, the church is a ruine since the Thirty Year’s War 1618 – 1648). In 1998 the statue was restored and placed back in the Schlossgarte of Merseburg.

Left: Louis Tuaillon, ‘Sandalenbinderin’ (‘Sandel Binder’). Displayed at the ‘Ausstellung der Akademie der Künste’, Berlin, 1919. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für Alle’, 1919. Earlier depicted in ‘Die Kunst für Alle’, 1913, with the text ‘in the possession of the Folkwang Museum city of Hagen’. Other casts are in the possession of the Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Museum Huis Doorn, the previous residence-in-exile (1920–1941) of Kaiser Willem II.
Middle: ‘Sandalenbinderin’ by Tuaillon, sold by a USA auction house in 2013. Bronze, height 55 cm. An identical cast was sold by a German auction house in 2016.
Right: ‘Sandalenbinderin’ by Tuaillon, located in Museum Huis Doorn. Photo 2020.
  

Left : Louis Tuaillon, ‘Weibliche Figur’ (‘Female Figure’). Displayed at the ‘Ausstellung der Akademie der Künste’, Berlin, 1923. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für Alle’, 1923/24.
Right: ‘Weibliche Figur’ by Tuaillon, sold by a German auction house in 2019. Height 61 cm.
   

Louis Tuaillon
Louis Tuaillon, born on 1919 in Berlin, was a German sculptor and medalist. From 1879 to 1881 he went to the Hochschule für Bildende Kunste in Berlin were he studied under Albert Wollf and Fritz Schaper. From 1882 to 1883 he worked as ‘Meisterschüler’ in the studio of Reihold Begas. A year later he travelled to Vienna were he worked for two years for Rudolf Weyr. From 1885 to 1903, almost two decades, Tuaillon lived and worked in Rom. Between 1890 and 1895, in Rom, he created his masterpiece ‘Amazone’, which was displayed at the ‘Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung’, 1895. A year later ‘Amazon’ was bought by the National Galerie in Berlin and placed on the östliche Vorgarten of the Alten Nationalgalerie. Nowadays it is located at the Kollonadenhof on the Museuminsel, Berlin. A more than life-size cast was commissioned by Kaiser Willem II and placed in 1906 at the Floraplatz in Tiergarten, Berlin. Kaiser Wilhelm II was a great admirer of Tuaillon. Between September 1919 and February 1922, after his abdication, five trains pulling 59 carriages transported 30.000 objects to The Netherlands from Wilhelm’s palaces in Berlin and Potsdam to furnish Huis Doorn, his residence-in-exile from 1921 – 1941). The Kaiser brought also a large cast of ‘Amazon’ by Tuaillon to The Netherlands (and a cast of ‘Sandel Binder’) which was placed on the ground of Huis Doorn. Huis Doorn, a manor house, is now a national museum. The original cast of ‘Amazon’ at the grounds of Huis Doorn was stolen in 2000; it was replaced by a aftercast created by Lauchhammer.
Other major works by Tuaillon:
‘Der Sieger’ (‘The Victor’, 1899, Steubenplatz, Berlin)
‘Herkules und der Erymantische Eber’ (‘Hercules and the Erymanthian Boar’, 1899/00, Lützowplatz, Berlin)
‘Rosselenker’ (‘Leading a Horse’, 1902, city of Bremen)
‘Kaiser Friedrich III’ (1905, Bremen, Herrmann Böse Strasse)
‘Herkules mit dem Stier’ (‘Hercules capturing the Cretan Bull’, 1907)
‘Friedrich de Grosse’ (‘Frederick the Great’, 1910, city of Beuthen)
‘Statue of Wilhelm II’ (1910, located next to the Hohenzollernbrücke in Cologne)
‘Statue of Friedrich III of Germany’ (1911, located next to the Hohenzollernbrücke in Cologne)
‘Stiertreiben’ (‘Driving Bulls’, 1913, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld)
‘Sandalenbinderin’ (‘Sandel Binder’, 1913, National Galerie and Museum Huis Doorn The Netherlands)
‘Reiterstandbild König Friedrich Wilhelm III’ (‘Rider-statue of King Wilhelm III’, 1918, city of Merseburg).
‘Reiterdenkmal Kaiser Wilhelm I’ (1919, city of Lubeck)
‘Hungarian Stier’ (1919, Bad Freienwalde)

Tuaillon was awarded a Golden Medal at the ‘Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung’ in 1899, and again in 1906. In 1902 Tuaillon became a member of the Berliner Sezession. A year later he became boardmember of the Deutsche Künstlerbund; at their first exhibition in 1904 in the Münchener Königlichen Kunstausstellungsgebäude he displayed again ‘Amazone’ as well as a bronze bull. In 1906 he was appointed professor at the Berlin Academy were he lead from 1907 onwards the sculpture department. In 1904 Tuaillon was awarded by Prince Regent Luitpold von Bayern the Maximilian Orde für Kunst und Wissenschaft. In 1910 he was awarded the honorary tittle of Doctor at the Berlin Academy. In 1916 Tuaillon became Honorable Member of the Dresden Academy of Art, and a year later member of the Academy of Arts in Vienna. In 1919 he was awarded the Order Pour Le Mérite for Sciences and Arts.
Louis Tuaillon died in Berlin in 1919. His grave belongs to the ‘Ehrengräber des Landes Berlin’.
In 1938 Albert Speer placed a huge bronze cast of ‘Herkules mit dem Stier’ (‘Hercules capturing the Cretan Bull’) by Tuaillon in the garden of Hitler’s Neue Reichskanzlei.