Ernst Plassmann


Ernst Plassmann was a German-American sculptor and carver.

Biography

Born in Sondern, near Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Plassmann began to study art under Munstermann, then continued his studies in Aachen, Cologne, and finally in Paris, where he spent about four years in the studio of Michel Liénard. He moved to New York City in 1853, and in 1854 established "Plassmann's School of Art", which he ran the rest of his life. In 1858 he founded the "Verein fur Kunst und Wissenschaft". In New York he became known for his statue of Benjamin Franklin in Printing House Square, depicted as a printer by including an issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette in his left hand. Plassmann spent months researching Franklin busts, portraits, and costumes, and he "labored conscientiously for several months" on the "colossal" clay statue, which was inaugurated on 17 January 1872.
His figures of Franklin and Guttenberg are located on the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung building. The heroic statue of Chief Tammany, a legendary Delaware Indian chief, is part of the façade of Tammany Hall on 14th Street, while the 1869 bronze statue of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Commodore Vanderbilt, is located at the south façade of Midtown Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal. A Plassmann sculpture stands in the freight depot of the New York Central Railroad, aside from various metal works, including medals. In 1875, he published Modern Gothic Ornaments with 83 plates. He began publishing Designs for Furniture in 1877, and had completed three parts by the time of his death.

Selected works