Begas, Reinhold

Reinhold Begas, (born July 15, 1831, Berlin, Prussia [Germany]—died Aug. 3, 1911, Berlin), artist who dominated Prussian sculpture for a generation after 1870.

Begas began studying sculpture with the leading figures of the Berlin school of sculptors, notably Gottfried Schadow and Christian Daniel Rauch. While studying in Italy from 1856 to 1858, Begas was strongly influenced by the work of Michelangelo and by the art of the Baroque period. The Baroque influence is apparent in his work in, for example, the agitation of draperies and the asymmetrical placement of his figures, in the “Schiller Memorial” (1871) and the “Bismarck Monument” (1901). Although Begas’ preference was for mythological and decorative subjects (“Mercury and Psyche”; 1874), he was the most famous German sculptor of his time in portraiture, executing busts of many of his great contemporaries.