Christian Rauch

Christian Daniel Rauch (2 January 1777 – 3 December 1857) was a German sculptor. He founded the Berlin school of sculpture, and was the foremost German sculptor of the 19th century.

Rauch was born at Arolsen in the Principality of Waldeck in the Holy Roman Empire. His father was employed at the court of Prince Frederick II of Hesse, and in 1790 the lad was apprenticed to the court sculptor of Arolsen, Friedrich Valentin. In 1795, he became assistant to Johann Christian Ruhl, the court sculptor of Kassel. After the death of his father in 1796 and his older brother in 1797, he moved to Berlin where he was appointed groom of the chamber in the king's household. He abandoned sculpture temporarily, but his new position provided a wider field for improvement, and he soon used the opportunity and practised his art in spare hours. He came under the influence of Johann Gottfried Schadow.

In 1802, he exhibited his “Sleeping Endymion.” Queen Louisa of Prussia, surprising him one day in the act of modeling her features in wax, sent him to study at the Prussian Academy of Art. Not long afterwards, in 1804, Count Sandrecky gave Rauch the means to complete his education at Rome, where Wilhelm von Humboldt, Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen befriended him. He also executed his life-size bust of Queen Louise in marble, and among his other early works were busts of the poet Zacharias Werner, Count Wenyerski and the painter Raphael Mengs, the latter executed on a commission from Ludwig I of Bavaria. Other works were bas-reliefs of “Hippolytus and Phaedra,” “Mars and Venus wounded by Diomede,” and a “Child praying.” He remained in Rome for six years.

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