Michael Wagmüller for Villeroy & Boch, late 19th century

MICHAEL WAGMÜLLER for Villeroy & Boch, late 19th century.
"Young man carrying his sister on his shoulders".
Patinated stoneware.
Signed and dated: "Wagmüller, 1871".
Presents manufacturing stamps: "Villeroy & Boch Merzig an der Saar, Germany Saarland".
It shows wear due to having been outdoors.
It has some losses.
Measurements: 125 x 42 x 58 cm; 96 x 52 x 53 x 53 cm (stand).

Michael Wagmüller (1839-1881) was a German sculptor who attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Munich, where he took his first steps in art under the tutelage of the sculptor Anselm Sickinger (1807-1873). From 1860 he began to work independently, although with little initial success. Due to the lack of sculptural commissions, he devoted himself temporarily to portrait painting, until he received a commission to make two busts and two female allegorical figures for a school in Munich.

Between 1868 and 1873, Wagmüller traveled regularly to London, where he sculpted a dozen busts of members of the British nobility. These works were exhibited in Munich, where they attracted the attention of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The monarch then commissioned a bronze statue of Louis XIV of France, the "Sun King". In 1869, his works presented at the "Glaspalast" in Munich earned him an honorary gold medal.

In 1872, it is recorded that he created a model of a girl carrying her little brother on her back, which he presented, among other places, at the Universal Exhibition in Vienna. This work was probably the one in question.

At the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1876 he presented a moving funeral monument dedicated to his two daughters who died in infancy. The work received critical acclaim and would eventually become his own tomb. During his last years, Wagmüller worked almost exclusively on commissions for the Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee palaces of King Ludwig II.