Franz Xaver Messerschmidt – an eccentric sculptor who abandoned his clients without regret and became a hermit in order to realize an unusual creative idea

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (February 6, 1736 – August 19, 1783) was a famous Austrian sculptor of the 18th century, an outstanding master of grotesque and caricature. He was an adherent of classicism at the initial stage of his work, but he became famous for the creation of an impressive series of busts, which the artist himself called “heads”. The faces of the characters in these works are distorted by all sorts of grimaces.

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt gained wide fame after his death. During his lifetime, his contemporaries considered him at best an extravagant eccentric, and at worst, mentally ill, although no documentary evidence of the genius master’s mental illness has yet been found.

Biography

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was born on February 6, 1736, in the small Bavarian town of Wiesensteig, located in the picturesque foothills of the German Alps. The early childhood of the future artist was difficult, his father worked as a simple tanner, and there was a catastrophic lack of money to support a large family. Therefore, from the age of five, Franz had to help his parents with the housework and herd sheep in order to earn a little money or a piece of bread.

When the boy was 9 years old, his father died and his mother and children moved to Munich, where her brother Johann Baptist Straub lived. The uncle held a prominent position as the court sculptor of the King of Bavaria and owned the largest workshop in the city for the production of statues and monuments.

Straub immediately discovered his nephew’s talent for fine art and took him on as his apprentice. For nine years, Franz conscientiously absorbed knowledge and acquired practical skills under the guidance of an experienced master, and then went to another uncle, Joseph, who lived in Graz and also worked as a sculptor. He lived there for another two years until he finally decided to move to Vienna to enroll in the National Academy of Arts.

The gifted young man brilliantly passed the entrance exams and became a student. His unique talent as a sculptor attracted the attention of the director of the academy, Martin van Meytens. Thanks to his influential patron, Franz was able to begin a full-fledged professional career while still a student, fulfilling orders from Viennese nobles, received under the patronage of van Meytens. After graduating from the academy in 1761, the young man stayed to live in Vienna. By that time, he had already gained wide fame in the city and even created several sculptures for the royal family of the Habsburgs. For four years, Franz Messerschmidt led a very prosperous life as a fashionable and sought-after artist, but suddenly decided to give it all up and went to Rome.

In the Eternal City, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt enthusiastically began studying the masterpieces of the old masters. In addition, he began to carve full-size copies of antique statues from huge logs right on the street and very soon gained enormous popularity in the capital of Italy.

He was greeted warmly and received many new lucrative orders. The artist enjoyed the special patronage of Empress Maria Theresa, who adored his work. The unique master knew how to create skillful works from a variety of materials. He skillfully worked with plaster and bronze, tin and wood, marble and clay. At the same time, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt began teaching at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. In 1774, the sculptor applied for an appointment to the vacant position of leading professor at the academy, but was decisively refused. Moreover, he was suspended from teaching, citing the strangeness of his behavior.

Messerschmidt was truly an extraordinary person. He never dissembled, spoke harshly to his opponents on any occasion, and was not distinguished by good manners. Angry at the whole world for the humiliating dismissal, Franz left for Bratislava in 1774, where the final stage of his professional career began.

The artist decisively rejected the principles of classical fine art and began creating his famous series of “heads”. His unique creative idea was to make 64 busts depicting vivid human emotions. With the money he had earned earlier, he bought a small house on the outskirts of Bratislava and set up a workshop in it. The master practically stopped communicating with the outside world.

In total, he managed to make more than 50 heads, which, however, did not arouse any interest among potential customers. The eccentric artist continued to create with enthusiasm for nine years, but on August 19, 1783, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt suddenly died in his studio from an unknown disease. He was buried in a cemetery for the poor on the outskirts of Bratislava without a pompous farewell or speeches. And 10 years after the master’s death, his “heads” unexpectedly gained enormous popularity among art lovers, which they have not lost to this day.