Born: 1866 Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)
Died: 1929 New York, USA
Year of Migration to the UK: 1897
Biography
Sculptor, painter and medallist Emil Fuchs was born into a modest family in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria) in 1866. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under sculptor Edmund von Hellmer (1850–1935) and from 1888 at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin where he trained as a sculptor and medallist. In 1891 he won the German Prix de Rome entitling him to spend a year in a government-owned studio in Rome. Afterwards, he stayed to fulfil a number of private portrait commissions and embarked on a five-year project, the carving of his monumental marble group Mother's Love, (now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, New York) which was awarded a gold medal at the Munich International Exhibition in 1896.
In 1897 he travelled to London to complete a portrait commission and was immediately successful in attracting further patronage. As a result, he decided to make London his permanent home, settling initially at 54 Devonshire Street, W1, and then at 115 Park Road, Regent's Park. He had already become acquainted with the Austrian Empress and the Italian Queen Mother and in London, he soon became a favourite of the Prince of Wales. Many royal commissions followed, which involved long visits to Windsor Castle and to Sandringham in Norfolk, allowing Fuchs to meet and sketch members of the royal household as well as their house guests. In 1900 he was invited to create the medal that marked Queen Victoria's reign into the twentieth century and he also contributed to the Prince Christian Victor Memorial, at Plymouth in Devon, erected in memory of the Prince of Schleswig-Holstein, who had died in the Boer War. In 1901 Fuchs executed a coronation medal for Edward VII and designed the penny postage stamp bearing the King's profile. The following year he had a one-man exhibition at the renowned Grafton Galleries in London and in 1908 he exhibited with the Allied Artists' Association (AAA) at the Royal Albert Hall. By this time Fuchs had also taken up painting, learning quickly under the mentorship of his friend, the American expatriate painter, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). Fuchs painted in Sargent's studio between 5.30 and 10 am before his sitters arrived and soon became a skilled and much sought-after portraitist among members of London's high society. Many notable representatives of the contemporary British political and artistic milieu came to his studio to have their portraits painted, including Winston Churchill; actor Johnston Forbes-Robertson; Miss Ellis, daughter of General Arthur Ellis; the Duchess of Manchester and her daughter Lady Alice Montagu. A number of his collotype portraits were then made available for mass circulation through their reproduction by The Autotype Company. On the night of 24 January 1901, Fuchs was the only artist invited to Queen Victoria's bed chamber to make sketches and a death mask. An album, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, contains several of his sketches and a sprig of dried flowers from Queen Victoria's room given to Fuchs by the Princess of Wales. Also included are numerous studies depicting the British Royals, including Queen Alexandra and King Edward VII at leisure: playing the piano, reading, at the card table, and writing. In 1909 he was awarded the Royal Victorian Order (MVO).
In 1898 Fuchs had also begun to teach at the Royal Academy Schools in London, as well as in Paris, Munich, Vienna, Berlin, and Rome and, from 1905, he made frequent trips to the USA, having established his name in wealthy American social circles. In 1915 he relocated to New York, a move precipitated by a rising tide of anti-German sentiment in England during the First World War and he was granted American citizenship in 1924. His autobiography, With Pencil, Brush and Chisel (1925) details the great breadth of his work and his considerable popularity among America's social elite. For a time, he concentrated on painting, but in the 1920s he re-focussed on sculpture and began to explore etching, a medium that dominated the last years of his career. The Association of Art Museum Directors organised two exhibitions that travelled throughout the USA and Canada (dates as yet unknown) during which Fuchs often gave lectures and demonstrations. In 1925 he was given a retrospective at the Fine Arts Building, New York where he exhibited 300 works. In 1928, having been diagnosed with terminal cancer, he spent time at the Battle Creek Sanatorium, Michigan. Emil Fuchs committed suicide at the Hotel des Artistes, New York, USA, in 1929. Fuchs' work is represented in UK public collections including the British Museum, Government Art Collection, Imperial War Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Collection, Tate (which owns his portrait of benefactor, Sir Joseph Duveen) and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and in a number of regional venues.
Related books
- Donna J. Hassler, 'Emil Fuchs', in American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vol. 2: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1865 and 1885 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001)
- Scott Miller, 'The Medallic Work of Emil Fuchs', in Alan M. Stahl ed., The Medal in America, Vol. 2 (New York: American Numismatic Society, 1999) pp. 178-233
- Mark Jones, 'Emil Fuchs in England', The Medal, No. 6, Spring 1985, pp. 23-29
- Wilford S. Conrow, 'The Emil Fuchs Collection', The Brooklyn Museum Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 1, 1933, pp. 4-5
- William Simmons, 'Emil Fuchs and Etching', The Print Connoisseur, No. 8, 1929, p. 3
- Emil Fuchs, Concerning the Art of Etching (New York: W. P. Truesdell, 1926)
- Etchings and Drawings by Emil Fuchs, exhib. cat. (New York: Macbeth Gallery, 1926)
- Emil Fuchs, With Pencil, Brush and Chisel: The Life of an Artist (New York, London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1925)
- Gladys Moch, Emil Fuchs: Painter, Sculptor, Etcher, American Magazine of Art, No. 16, September 1925, pp. 484-488
- Helen Comstock, Sculpture by Emil Fuchs, International Studio, No. 81, April 1925, pp. 60-63
- The Work of Emil Fuchs, exhib. cat. (New York, 1925)
- The Work of Emil Fuchs: Illustrating Some of his Representative Paintings, Sculpture, Medals and Studies, exhib. cat. (New York, 1921)
- Selwyn Brinton, Emil Fuchs: Some Work in Sculpture, Medals, and Portraiture, International Studio, No. 34, March 1908, pp. 3-18
Public collections
- Birmingham Museums Trust
- British Museum
- Government Art Collection
- Hastings Museum and Art Gallery
- Imperial War Museum
- Low Parks Museum
- National Army Museum
- National Portrait Gallery
- Royal Collection Trust
- Royal Marines Museum, Southsea
- The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies
- Tate
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Walker Art Gallery
Related organisations
- Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna (student)
- German Prix de Rome (recipient, 1891)
- Prussian Academy of Arts, Berlin (student)
- Royal Academy of Arts (staff member and exhibitor)
Related web links
- Digital catalogue of 'The Work of Emil Fuchs: Illustrating Some of his Representative Paintings, Sculpture, Medals and Studies'
- Sketch of Queen Victoria on her death bed by Fuchs
- King Edward VII Coronation Medal, 1902
- Entry on Emil Fuchs in the Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951 database
- Emil Fuchs' papers at the Brooklyn Museum, New York
Selected exhibitions
- Etchings and Drawings by Emil Fuchs, Macbeth Gallery, New York (1926)
- Summer Exhibitions, Royal Academy of Arts (1914, 1913, 1912, 1908, 1902, 1901, 1898)
- The London Salon of the Allied Artists' Association, Royal Albert Hall, London (1908)
- Grafton Galleries (1902)
- 31st Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures in Oil and Water-Colours, Walker Art Gallery (1901)
- 30th Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures in Oil and Water-colours, Walker Art Gallery (1900)
- Eighteenth Autumn Exhibition, Corporation of Manchester Art Gallery (1900)
- 28th Autumn Exhibition of Modern Pictures in Oil and Water-Colours, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (1898)
- Munich International Exhibition, Munich (1896)
