A Pair of Bronze Candlesticks

By Richard Riemerschmid, circa 1898

14 ½ in (36.8 cm) high

cf. Phillipe Thiébaut, 'Vereinigte Wekstätten für Kunst im Handwerk', Orsay Decorative Arts, 2003, pg.65

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Richard Riemerschmid (1868-1957), a German architect, painter and designer whose work was imported by Liberty & Co. in the 1900s, first became generally known after his participation in the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900. He was an important figure in ‘Jugendstil’, the German form of Art Nouveau and valued craftsmanship. Co-founder of the United Workshops for Art in Handcrafts, Riemerschmid paved the way for the modern artistic handcrafts movement. Influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement, he created furniture, carpets, fabric and wallpaper designs, glass, bronze and porcelain pieces.

This model for a candlestick featured among the first of Riemerschmid’s productions in the field of decorative arts, but it was also one of the early examples of the ‘Jugendstil’ movement of Munich. The shape of this object combines suppleness and sobriety. Possibly based on a plant model, only the allusion to its development and its growth is retained. Riemerschmid was seeking to restore the idea of the living object and, unlike the Scottish and Viennese experiments of the time, he rejected the straight line. An elongated stem rises from a swirling, circular base, its vigorous dynamism unhindered by any detail until the final flower bud.

An identical pair of candlesticks by Riemerschmid is held in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.