Goethe (1749-1832) and Schiller (1759-1805), (sculpture).

Goethe (1749-1832) and Schiller (1759-1805), (sculpture).

Rietschel, Ernest Friedrich August, 1804-1861, sculptor.

Goethe (1749-1832) and Schiller (1759-1805), (sculpture).

Goethe and Schiller, (sculpture).

Digital Reference:

Sculpture: cast bronze; Base: Missouri red granite, polished.

Sculpture: approx. H. 8 ft. x W. 3 ft.; Base: approx. 8 ft. x 108 in. x 72 1/2 in.

(On front of base, raised letters:) GOETHE SCHILLER (On back of base:) Dedicated to the City of San Francisco by Citizens of German decent (sic) of California in the year Nineteen Hundred one.

Portraits of Johann Goethe and Johann Schiller walking side-by-side. Goethe is dressed in a long jacket, a buttoned vest, a ruffled shirt, knee britches, stockings and shoes. He holds a laurel wreath in his proper right hand. Schiller is dressed in a long jacket, a buttoned vest, a ruffled collared shirt, knee britches, stockings and shoes. He stands to Goethe's proper left and holds a scroll in his lowered proper left hand, while reaching toward the garland that Goethe holds with his proper right hand. The sculpture is placed atop an inscribed base that surmounts a three-stepped platform.

Portrait male -- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von -- Full length

Portrait male -- Schiller, Johann Christoph Friedrich von -- Full length

Occupation -- Writer -- Poet

Occupation -- Writer -- Dramatist

Occupation -- Writer -- Critic

Occupation -- Education -- Philosopher

Ethnic -- German

Object -- Written Matter -- Scroll

Object -- Other -- Wreath

Outdoor Sculpture -- California -- San Francisco

Administered by City and County of San Francisco, San Francisco Arts Commission, 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 240, San Francisco, California 94102

Located Golden Gate Park, Academy of Sciences Drive, east of Morrison Planetarium, San Francisco, California

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German poet and dramatist. Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) was a German poet, playwright, and historian. The sculpture was a 1901 gift of a committee of Lauchhammer (Prussian Saxony) citizens with funds from German residents of San Francisco. A reproduction of this sculpture is in Weimer, Germany. IAS files contain a related excerpt from Martin Snipper's "A Survey of Art Work in the City and County of San Francisco," Art Commission, City and County of San Francisco, c1953, pg. 60; and excerpt from "Goethe-Schiller," Nov. 1895, pg. 14. For related information see: The Arts Commission of San Francisco's "San Francisco Civic Art Collection: A Guided Tour to Publicly Owned Art of the City and County of San Francisco," San Francisco, CA: Arts Commission of San Francisco, c1989, pg. 60.

National Park Service, American Monuments and Outdoor Sculpture Database, CA2052, CA5002, 1989.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, California, San Francisco survey, 1993.

Monumental News, July 1894, May 1908.

Monumental News, May 1908, pg. 370.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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