Figure, Portrait and Casting
After returning from Rome in 1864 Reinhold Begas created numerous uncommissioned works for no particular occasion. In doing this he searched for new motifs and forms that corresponded directly to his artistic concerns. In particular he sculpted the human body as it seemed to be moved by emotions and passions. His contemporaries praised his realistic rendering of the muscles and skin, which made the stone come alive. Sculptural portraits played a special role in Begas’ work: of 182 works known to us, 49 are portrait busts. His heads form the “Who’s Who” of the German Empire: scholars such as Mommsen, artists like Menzel, such politicians as Bismarck, industrialists like Borsig as well as numerous society ladies sat for the sculptor. Begas also received official commissions from the Imperial Court and made busts of the three Hohenzollern Kaisers and their consorts. He also lived up to his reputation as a masterly portraitist in many designs for small-format objects of the culture of remembrance, such as medallions, medals and detail studies.
