Christian Mohr

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

Born at Andernach, 1823; died at Cologne, 1888. He practised his profession of sculptor chiefly at Cologne under the cathedral architect Zwirner. After some early ornamental work at Mains and Coblens, Mohr settled in Cologne in 1845. He first executed the statuettes on the tomb of Archbishop Conrad of Hochstaden, the founder of the cathedral. Of importance are his figures of Christ, the Evangelists, and fifty-nine angels on the south portal of the cathedral, where the rich variety of the added symbols excites admiration. On the commission of Emperor William I the eight statues in the middle hall were executed. The "St. Peter" for the middle portal won Mohr the first-class medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1855. He also carved the statue of the first Cologne cathedral architect, Gerhard Riele, and that of the veteran painter of the Cologne school, Stephan Lochner. He undertook many commissions outside of Cologne: the panoramic figures for the assembly-hall at Düsseldorf, the thirty-four figures of the emperors for the Rathaus at Aachen, the equestrian statues for the Fürstenbergische Schloss at Herdringen, the portrait effigies of the Princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, the figures for the fountain on the market-place at Lübeck, etc. For more than forty years he was thus engaged at Cologne, executing commissions for that city and other places. The cathedral is indebted to him for the best of its sculptural decoration; the Rathhaus for the statues of the emperors, and the Museum for the bust of Michelangelo, which in 1873 secured for Mohr the honour of being made a regular member of the K. K. Akademie of Vienna. Mohr was equally esteemed as an art-collector and connoisseur of classical and German antiquities. His household furniture represented the art of the Dürer period. That he was not opposed to the Renaissance is proved by a beautiful silver epergne in that style. Finally, he appears as a writer on art in the works "Köln in seiner Glanzzeit" and "Kölner Torburgen". For his knowledge and his achievements he was indebted for the most part to his personal exertions, since he was practically self-educated; and, even though in many cases he only executed the plans of Schwanthaler, still numerous independent works display both talent and taste.

Zeitschr. für bildende Kunst, XXIV, 100 sqq.; Illustrierte Zeitung, no. 866 (1860).

G. GIETMANN.