Franz Xaver Messerschmidt - Character Head - Bronze figure

This bronze sculpture shows one of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s world famous Character Heads and is a masterpiece of Modern Art. The man looks very hard and strained to the front and keeps his eyes half-closed. His facial expression offers strong exertion, so that his face is covered with lots of deep lines and wrinkles and the tendons at the neck can be seen. The head is worked out in detail and looks very realistic. The elder man seems extremely disappointed and awfully morose. The curious sculpture will be an eye-catcher in each collection of figures. This strange work of art is made of 100% bronze and contains the signature of the artist Franz Xaver Messerschmidt at the reverse side.

As all of the bronze products in our shop, this exhibit is hand-cast in our own foundry and subject to our strict quality inspections throughout the entire process of fabrication. All of our sculptures are exclusively compounded with the help of lost-wax casting.

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The modern bronze Character Head was made by the famous German sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, who was born on 6th February in 1736 in Wiesensteig. The German-Austrian artist had been attended the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna since 1755; there he was taught by Matthäus Donner and other famous artists. During his studies he also visited Rome and began to study in the capital of Italy. He already started to make some curious figures and sculptures in 1770 and after he left Vienna to move to his brother in Pressburg he did the well known Character Heads. The expressive heads are a kind of self-portraits. They show outrageous facial expressions in many different ways, both grotesque and confusing. The head figures also reflect the new ideas of the arts in the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century. Franz Xaver Messerschmidt died on 19th August in 1783 in Pressburg. It is still unknown whether he suffered from a mental disease.

Height: 35 cm
Width: 24 cm
Depth: 22 cm
Weight: 4,0 kg
100% Bronze