Otto Schmidt-Hofer

Schmidt-Hofer was born in Berlin, German Empire, in 1873.[1] He studied at the Royal School of Art and also in the educational department at the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts, founded as the Deutsches Gewerbe-Museum zu Berlin in 1868.[2][3]

A signature example for German sculptor Otto Schmidt-Hofer from circa 1920

He specialized in genre sculpture featuring working people doing normal everyday tasks and activities. He produced a number of sculptures of blacksmiths and masons at work, women harvesting fields with scythes, and athletes.

A number of the pieces he cast were of figures in the nude[4] which was popular during the era he worked in. Schmidt-Hofer was a member of the National Association of Artists in Germany. He produced several Neoclassical statues in patinated bronze and held membership in the Reichsverband bildender Künstler in Germany.[2]

The very versatile Schmidt-Hofer was able to transition from works produced in the Art Nouveau era and pivot to doing a number of Art Deco sculptures during the latter portion of his career between 1915 and 1925.[5]

One sculpture, among his large career output of Art Deco sculptures, was The Entertainer. The statue, cast in four variations – one being chryselephantine and the other being all bronze (and also clothed and nude) – was among the best of the work he produced. The Entertainer features a beautiful, svelte young lady wearing a jewel-laden costume in the midst of a stage performance. Schmidt-Hofer also produced a small version of the statue (about 6 inches high) that was mounted on a Brazilian green onyx pin dish.[6] The full array of Schmidt-Hofer's plentiful sculpting skills are displayed in this artwork which he completed c. 1920.

Schmidt-Hofer died in Berlin, Weimar Republic, in 1925.[1] Along with other German sculptors of the period such as Iffland, Preiss, and Schmidt-Felling, Schmidt-Hofer takes his rightful place as one of the premier Neoclassical, Art Deco, and Art Nouveau sculptors that Germany has ever produced.