(b Munich, 26 Aug 1802; d Munich, 14 Nov 1848). Son of (3) Franz Jakob Schwanthaler. He first trained with his father and then (1819–22) attended the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, established in Munich in 1808. As a pupil of Albrecht Adam, he first trained as a painter of battle pictures but then turned increasingly to sculpture. After his father’s death he took over his studio, receiving his first official commission in 1824 from Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (reg 1806–25), for a cycle of reliefs with scenes from ancient mythology for a table centre. Schwanthaler was appointed a court sculptor, most of his activity being connected with the works of art and buildings commissioned by Ludwig I, King of Bavaria, from 1825. Periods spent by Schwanthaler in Rome in the years 1826–7 and 1832–4 were to have a crucial impact on his further development as a practising artist: in Bertel Thorvaldsen’s studio he saw how an up-to-date large-scale artist’s studio of European renown was run as a business, and he adopted this as a model for his own studio in Munich. There he soon became a much sought-after sculptor, both at court and among the middle classes. At times he had as many as 50 pupils working in his studio. In 1835 he was appointed professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste.

Part of the Schwanthaler family

• Schwanthaler, Ludwig (Michael) von
  • Löcherer, Alois
  • Schwanthaler
  • groups and movements
    • Romanticism, §3(iv): Manifestations in art: Sculpture
  • patrons and collectors
    • Cavendish: (5) William Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire
    • Germany, §IV, 4: Sculpture, c 1750–c 1900
    • Germany, §XIV, 2: Museums: Growth and evolution, up to the mid-20th century
    • Munich, §II, 2: Art life and organization, c 1799 and after
  • pupils
    • Heidel, Hermann Rudolf
    • Hoffmann, Karl
    • Switzerland, §IV: Sculpture
    • Widnmann, Max von
  • works
    • Austria, §IV, 4: Sculpture, c 1750–c 1900: Neo-classicism to Historicism
    • Hähnel, Ernst Julius
    • Klenze, Leo von, §1(ii): Mature work, 1816–64
    • Munich, §I, 3: History and urban development, c 1799 and after
    • Munich, §IV, 2: Residenz
    • Salzburg, §2(ii): Art life and organization, after c 1600
    • Wittelsbach, §III: (3) Ludwig I, King of Bavaria