Eduard van der Nüll
Encyclopedia
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, who was one of the great masters in the historicist
Historicism (art)
Historicism refers to artistic styles that draw their inspiration from copying historic styles or artisans. After neo-classicism, which could itself be considered a historicist movement, the 19th century saw a new historicist phase marked by a return to a more ancient classicism, in particular in...
style of Vienna's Ringstrasse.
Life and work
After studying at the Vienna Polytechnical InstituteVienna University of Technology
Vienna University of Technology is one of the major universities in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Founded in 1815 as the "Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute" , it currently has about 26,200 students , 8 faculties and about 4,000 staff members...
(alongside, among others, Peter von Nobile, Paul Wilhelm Eduard Sprenger and Carl Roesner), he and his friend August Sicard Sicardsburg made extensive trips through Western Europe for purposes of study. In 1844, he became a professor at the Academy with a new Chair created for him in Perspektive und Ornamentik (perspective and ornamentation).
He remained associated with Sicardsburg for life, in a professional and artistic symbiosis. While Sicardsburg handled primarily practical and technical questions, van der Nüll was responsible for issues of decoration and aesthetics.. Their first joint project was in 1847, creating the Carltheater
Carltheater
The Carltheater was a theatre in Vienna. It was in the suburbs in Leopoldstadt at Praterstraße 31 .It was the successor to the Leopoldstädter Theater. After a series of financial difficulties, that theater had been sold in 1838 to the director, Carl Carl, who continued to run it in parallel to his...
in Vienna-Leopoldstadt
Leopoldstadt
Leopoldstadt is the 2nd municipal District of Vienna . There are inhabitants over . It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Brigittenau , forms a large island surrounded by the Danube Canal and, to the north, the Danube. It is named after Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor...
(since destroyed). In the 1850s they added some sections to the Vienna Arsenal
Arsenal (Vienna)
The Arsenal is a former military complex of buildings in the south-east of Vienna in the third district.Several brick buildings in a rectangle layout make up the complex which is located on a bank south of the Landstraßer Gürtel...
, such as the command building whilst Van der Nüll was solely responsible for the interior design of the Altlerchefelder Parish Church, the most important church project of the decade.
Their most important joint project, however, was the Vienna Court Opera (Wiener Staatsoper) in the style of the Early Renaissance, during 1861-1869, built as the first public building along the Vienna Ringstrasse. In 1860, the project had been submitted to competition and won by the two architects.
Their design failed to match the monumentality of the Heinrichshof opposite (destroyed in World War II, and in 1955 replaced by the Opernringhof). Criticism from both the Emperor
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
and a press campaign against the pair of architects described the disappointment of the Viennese public and suggested that the building was merely a half-success. After the street level in front of the opera house was raised by a metre, the opera was described as the "sunken chest" and - in analogy to the military disaster of 1866 - "the Königgratz
Battle of Königgrätz
The Battle of Königgrätz , also known as the Battle of Sadowa, Sadová, or Hradec Králové, was the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War, in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire...
of Construction".
Eduard van der Nüll was deeply troubled by the criticism and hanged himself on 4 April 1868. His partner Sicardsburg died nearly 10 weeks later, diagnosed with tuberculosis. It was said that the Emperor had been so shocked by the suicide of Eduard van der Nüll, that from then on he responded to all new art phenomena with the standard phrase, "It was very beautiful, I liked it a lot".
Eduard van der Nüll was buried in an honorary grave in Vienna's Central Cemetery (Group 32 A, No. 5). In 1875, the Van-der-Nüll street in the Favoriten
Favoriten
Favoriten, the 10th district of Vienna, Austria , is located south of the central districts. It is south of Innere Stadt, Wieden and Margareten...
District of Vienna was named after him.
List of works
- Altlerchenfelder Pfarrkirche (church), 1848-1861
- Monument for Archduke Karl of Austria-Teschen at HeldenplatzHeldenplatzThe Heldenplatz is a historical plaza in Vienna. Many important actions took place here, most notably Adolf Hitler's announcement of the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938.-The Plaza:...
, 1859. - Monument for Prince Eugen of Savoy at HeldenplatzHeldenplatzThe Heldenplatz is a historical plaza in Vienna. Many important actions took place here, most notably Adolf Hitler's announcement of the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938.-The Plaza:...
, 1856.
Along with August Sicard von Sicardsburg:
- Schutzengelbrunnen, 1843-1846
- SophienbadSofiensaalThe Sofiensaal was a concert hall and recording venue in Vienna, Austria. It was situated on Marxergasse, in the city's third district of Landstraße. It burned down on 16 August 2001, although the facade of the building is still intact....
, 1845 - CarltheaterCarltheaterThe Carltheater was a theatre in Vienna. It was in the suburbs in Leopoldstadt at Praterstraße 31 .It was the successor to the Leopoldstädter Theater. After a series of financial difficulties, that theater had been sold in 1838 to the director, Carl Carl, who continued to run it in parallel to his...
, 1846-1847 - Arsenal of Vienna, 1849-1855
- Wiener Staatsoper (opera house), 1861-1869
- Haas-Haus, 1866-1868 (now site of the unrelated Haas-HausHaas-HausThe Haas-Haus is a building in Vienna at the Stock-im-Eisen-Platz.Designed by the Austrian architect Hans Hollein, it is a building in the postmodernist style and was completed in 1990. The use of the Haas-Haus is divided between retail and a restaurant. The building is considered controversial...
) - Palais Larisch-Mönich, 1867-1868
- Industriepalast on the occasion of the World Exposition of 1873Weltausstellung 1873 Wien]The Weltausstellung 1873 Wien was the large World exposition was held in 1873 in the Austria–Hungarian capital of Vienna. Its motto was Kultur und Erziehung ....
.
External links
- planet-vienna.com - Eduard van der Nüll (German)
- Nüll, Eduard van der, in "Constant von Wurzbach", Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich (Biographical Dictionary of Kaiser Austria), Volume 20, Vienna 1869.