Max von Widnmann

Max von Widnmann (ennobled as Maximilian Ritter von Widnmann; 16 October 1812 – 3 March 1895) was a German sculptor and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Many of his works were commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria.

Life and career Max von Widnmann was born in Eichstätt, the youngest of three sons of Franz Amand Widnmann, who held the positions of court, town and regional physician, and his wife Maximiliana née Pöckhel, who also served as a town and local physician. After attending the gymnasium in Eichstätt, he entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1825. There he studied with Ludwig Michael Schwanthaler among others. His teachers made it possible for him to go to Rome from 1836 to 1839, and there he befriended and studied with Bertel Thorvaldsen, who was already a well-known sculptor. He was also a friend of the Cologne architect Sulpiz Boisserée, whose art collection was acquired by Ludwig I for the Alte Pinakothek in 1827.

After returning from Rome, Widnmann became an independent artist in Munich, where Ludwig I soon began to commission works from him, including portrait busts for the Walhalla memorial near Regensburg. Ferdinand von Miller cast many of his sculptures in bronze.

In 1849, Widnmann became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Some of his work was destroyed in the bombing of Munich during World War II.

Selected works Busts of Christian Amberger, Hans Holbein, Georg von Freundsberg, Mandl, Rottmann Leo von Klenze monument Bamberg (statue of Prince Bishop Franz Ludwig von Erthal, and Lorenz von Westenrieder on the Promenadeplatz in Munich (1848, 1854) Equestrian statues of Castor and Pollux in front of the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (1877)