Aktien-Gesellschaft Gladenbeck was a foundry located in Berlin, Germany, that operated from 1851 until 1926. During the 75-year period when the foundry was in operation it was one of the most important foundries in Germany and was known for producing high quality bronze castings. [1]
The Aktien-Gesellschaft Gladenbeck foundry opened for business in 1851 [2] in Berlin, Germany, under the leadership of its founder, Carl Gustav Hermann Gladenbeck. [3] It was one of the most important foundries in Germany, known for its high quality bronze castings. [1] Some of the first bronze sculptures that emerged from the foundry were marked "Gladenbeck" with subsequent castings over the years being marked "Gladenbeck und Sohn", "Akt-Ges v.H. Gladenbeck", "Akt-Ges Gladenbeck Berlin" or "Aktien-Gesellschaft Gladenbeck". [3]
The foundry cast many of the best known bronze sculptures created by German artists in the mid-to-late 19th century and early 20th century. [1] In addition to serving the usually modest casting requirements of German sculptors, [1] the foundry was also capable of casting large-scale bronze statues. In 1913 the Gladenbeck foundry cast the monumental Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. [4] [5]
In 1910, Gladenbeck cast the Three Dancing Maidens Untermyer fountain by sculptor Walter Schott. The fountain is located in Conservatory Garden, Central Park, New York. The sculpture – situated on a limestone plinth – depicts three young ladies holding hands in a circle "whose dresses cling to their wet bodies as if they were perpetually in the fountain's spray". The fountain includes three jets, two on the oval pool's sides and a larger one in the center of the sculpture. [6]
In the early 1920s, art deco master Ferdinand Preiss employed Gladenbeck to cast many of his bronze and chryselephantine sculptures. [7]
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The foundry went out of business in 1926 when it declared bankruptcy. [3]
The Victory Column is a monument in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Second Schleswig War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria and its German allies in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), giving the statue a new purpose. Different from the original plans, these later victories in the unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, 8.3 metres (27 ft) high, designed by Friedrich Drake.
Georg Ferdinand Howaldt was a German sculptor.
Johann Philipp Ferdinand Preiss was a German sculptor. He was one of the leading sculptors of the Art Deco period.
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Adolf Brütt was a German sculptor. He was the founder of the Weimarer Bildhauerschule and its accompanying bronze foundry.
The Untermyer Fountain is a memorial fountain with a bronze cast of Walter Schott's sculpture Three Dancing Maidens. It is located in the Conservatory Garden of Central Park in New York City.
Walter Schott was a German sculptor and art professor.
Franz Iffland (1862–1935) was a German sculptor and painter who worked during the late 19th and early 20th century. He was born in 1862 in Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia. The majority of his sculptures were influenced by the jugendstil movement but late in his career, beginning in the mid-1920s, he produced a number of art deco sculptures. Iffland died in Berlin, Nazi Germany in 1935.
Julius Paul Schmidt-Felling (1835–1920) was a German sculptor who worked during the mid-to-late 19th century and early 20th century. The subject matter of his work was wide and varied. He produced, among others, bronze statues of heroic warriors, athletes, blacksmiths, and farmers. A number of his sculptures of young children were in the Dutch colonial style, some being whimsical in nature.
Otto Schmidt-Hofer (1873–1925) was a German sculptor who worked during the late 19th century and early 20th century. His work was primarily Neoclassical and Art Nouveau between 1893-1914 and Art Deco from 1915 until his death in 1925.
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Hubert Netzer was a German sculptor, medalist, and university professor.
Three Dancing Maidens is a nymph fountain (Nymphenbrunnen) sculpture by Walter Schott. There are three full-size versions or castings of the bronze sculpture: One known as the Untermyer Fountain in Central Park, New York, the second one in Antwerp’s Den Brandt Park, and the third one in the courtyard of the Burg Schlitz castle, a grand hotel in the Mecklenburg region of northern Germany. Identification of the original sculpture created for Rudolf Mosse in 1909, and later looted by the Nazi Party is the subject of research, which appears to be leading to the version in the Burg Schlitz castle. Three-quarters scale castings, likely to be examples of the sculptor's early drafts, can be found in Germany, Austria, and Northern California.
Locking Piece is a sculpture by Henry Moore. It comprises two interlocking forms holding a third element between them, on a bronze base. It is usually mounted on a separate plinth. The sculpture was created in 1962–1964, and bronze casts were made in 1964–1967.
Hermann Noack, or Noack Foundry, is a German art foundry in Berlin, named after its original proprietor and his three direct descendants, all with the same name, who have run the business. Most of its works are cast in bronze.
Ferdinand Lepcke (or Lepke) (1866–1909) was a German sculptor, who in particular realized two major monuments in Bydgoszcz: the Deluge Fountain and The Archer. He received a golden medal at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition and, the Berlin Minister for Spiritual Education and Medical Affairs awarded him the title of professor.
A bronze statue of William III of England stands on the south side of Kensington Palace in London, facing towards the Golden Gates. The statue was designed by Heinrich Baucke and erected in 1907. It was cast by the Gladenbeck foundry in Berlin and given as a gift by the German Emperor Wilhelm II to his uncle, King Edward VII. The statue has been a Grade II listed building since 1969.