August Gaul (b.1869 Hanau - d.1922 Berlin) | 4885

Georg August Gaul was a German sculptor who came from an artisan family - his father was a master stonemason. Already at the age of 12, he began studying at the Royal Drawing School in Hanau under Max Wiese. In 1887 he began working in one of the manufactories in Hanau, which influenced his interest in bronze decoration.

In 1890, he received a scholarship and continued his studies at Berlin's Museum of Arts and Crafts, where he became interested in animalism. Thanks to his lottery winnings, he had frequent access to the Berlin Zoo, which led to numerous animal sketches in his work. He also studied stuffed animals and skeletons at the Natural History Museum.

Gaul attended classes at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts, where he learned from Paul Meyerheim and Ernst Herter. In 1893 he created "Young Lion" ("Lioness"), his first widely known sculpture. Beginning in 1894, he worked as Begas' assistant and created lion figures for the Kaiser Wilhelm monument in Berlin.

Between 1895 and 1897, Gaul worked on an orangutan figure for the Natural History Museum. In 1897, he won a scholarship that allowed him to travel to Rome and where he met Louis Tuaillon. There, he became fascinated with neoclassicism, and his works featured hard, strongly outlined forms.

At the turn of the century, he experimented with his sculptural form, moving in the direction of art nouveau, and in 1899 became a member of the Berlin Secession. It was also during this time that his works began to find success at exhibitions, such as "Lioness" at the Turin Decorative Arts Exhibition in 1902.

Gaul won many titles and awards, including the title of professor given by the Prussian Ministry of Culture (1908). He never accepted an official teaching position, but had several students, the best of whom was Max Esser. After Gaul's death, Esser completed the sculptures he had begun.