Joseph Maria Christen

Joseph Anton Maria Christen (22 February 1767 – 30 March 1838) was a Swiss sculptor known for his portrait busts. He worked in a Neoclassical style and gained recognition beyond Switzerland with his 1805 bust of Napoleon.

Biography Joseph Maria Christen was born on 22 February 1767 in Buochs. His father, Johann Jakob Walter Laurenz Christen, painted religious images and also worked as a shepherd and woodcarver.

In 1790, Christen was in Zurich and later spent time in Stans and Lucerne.

After finding patrons in Zurich, Christen gained commissions from collectors in Basel who had previously supported Trippel. He received numerous portrait commissions during the occupation of Basel in 1813 and around the time of the Congress of Vienna in 1815. These were among the most successful years of his career. While in Vienna, he made portraits of prominent participants in the congress, including Klemens von Metternich and Alexander I of Russia.

Christen also received commissions for portrait busts for the Walhalla memorial near Regensburg. Only the 1812 bust of Heinrich von Hallwyl was completed. In 1818, he produced a marble bust of the Swiss politician Frédéric-César de La Harpe for the Aargau government, which was planning a hall of fame modelled on the Walhalla.

Other works include the 1799 funerary monument to Esther Forcart-Weiss in Basel and the now-lost sculpture Venus Anadyomene of 1809.

Works by Christen are held in collections including the Aargauer Kunsthaus and the Historisches Museum Basel.

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