Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka
Encyclopedia
Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolf Blaschka (17 June 1857–1 May 1939) were German
glass artists, known for the production of biological models such as the Glass Flowers
.
, Bohemia
, to a family which originated from Antoniwald in the Izera Mountains, a region known for processing glass, metals and gems. The family had also spent time in the glassblowing industry of Venice
.
Leopold displayed artistic skills as a child, and was apprenticed to a goldsmith
and gemcutter
. He then joined the family business, which produced glass ornaments and glass eyes. He developed a technique which he termed "glass-spinning", which permitted the construction of highly precise and detailed works in glass. He also Latinised his family name to "Blaschka", and began to focus the business on the manufacture of glass eyes.
In 1853, Leopold was suffering from ill health and was prescribed a sea voyage. He travelled to the United States
and back, using the time at sea to study and draw sea animals, primarily invertebrate
s.
to give their child better educational opportunities. Leopold began making glass models of exotic flowers which he had seen depicted in books. Prince Camille de Rohan heard about his work, and commissioned 100 models of orchids in his private collection. In 1863, the Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde Dresden
commissioned Leopold to produce twelve models of sea anenomes. While these designs were based on drawings in books, Leopold was soon able to use his earlier drawings to produce highly detailed models of other species, and his reputation quickly spread.
Leopold began selling models of marine invertebrates to museums, aquaria, universities and other educational bodies who wanted visual aids but were unable to satisfactorily preserve such animals. These represented a great improvement on previous methods of presenting such creatures: drawings, pressing, photographs and papier-mâché
or wax models. He gradually extended his range of work by studying marine animals from the North Sea
, Baltic Sea
and Mediterranean, and later constructed an aquarium at his house, in order to keep live specimens from which to model.
In about 1880, Rudolf began assisting his father with the models. In that year, they produced 131 models of sea slug
s, jellyfish
, and other animals for the Boston Society of Natural History Museum (now the Museum of Science). These models were seen by George Lincoln Goodale
, who was in the process of setting up the Harvard Botanical Museum. In 1886, he travelled to meet the Blaschkas and, with some difficulty, convinced them to produce some new plant models for him. Some reports claim that Goodale saw a few glass orchids in the room where they met, surviving from the work two decades earlier. This commission required the Blaschkas to undertake considerable research into both the plant species and the manufacturing process.
The first few models the Blaschkas sent were badly damaged by U.S. Customs
, but Goodale nonetheless appreciated the craftwork and showed them widely. Among the local residents who saw them were Elizabeth C. and Mary Lee Ware, who offered to pay for a long-term contract for the Blaschkas to produce models of plants for the museum. In 1887, the parties signed a contract for the Blaschkas to spend half their time producing models for Harvard. They continued to spend their remaining time making marine invertebrate models. This time, arrangements were made to send the models directly to Harvard, where museum staff could open them safely, observed by Customs staff. In 1890, the Blaschkas signed an exclusive ten-year contract with Harvard, for 8,800 marks per year, to make glass flowers
. It was decided that they should be asked to model the widest possible range of plants, and some were to be shown being pollinated
, or diseased in some way.
, and also grew some from seed sent from the United States. In 1892, Rudolf was sent on a trip to the Caribbean
and the U.S. to study additional plants, making extensive drawings and notes.
Rudolf made a second trip to the U.S. in 1895. While he was overseas, Leopold died. Rudolf continued to work alone. By the early twentieth century, he found that he was unable to buy glass of suitably high quality, and so started making his own.
Rudolf continued making models for Harvard until 1938. By then aged 80, old and weary, he announced that he would retire. Neither he nor his father had taken on an apprentice, and Rudolf left no successor. For Harvard alone, Leopold and Rudolf made more than 3,000 models, 780 showing species at life-size, with others showing magnified details.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
glass artists, known for the production of biological models such as the Glass Flowers
Glass Flowers
The Glass Flowers, formally The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, is a famous collection of highly-realistic glass botanical models at the Harvard Museum of Natural History at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
.
Early life of Leopold
Leopold Blaschke was born in Český DubCeský Dub
Český Dub is a town in the Czech Republic.-External links:*...
, Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, to a family which originated from Antoniwald in the Izera Mountains, a region known for processing glass, metals and gems. The family had also spent time in the glassblowing industry of Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
.
Leopold displayed artistic skills as a child, and was apprenticed to a goldsmith
Goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...
and gemcutter
Gemcutter
A gemcutter, is a person who cuts, shapes, and polishes natural and synthetic gemstones. In historical use it usually refers to an artist who made hardstone carvings or engraved gems, a branch of miniature sculpture or ornament in gemstone....
. He then joined the family business, which produced glass ornaments and glass eyes. He developed a technique which he termed "glass-spinning", which permitted the construction of highly precise and detailed works in glass. He also Latinised his family name to "Blaschka", and began to focus the business on the manufacture of glass eyes.
In 1853, Leopold was suffering from ill health and was prescribed a sea voyage. He travelled to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and back, using the time at sea to study and draw sea animals, primarily invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s.
Early models
Leopold's son Rudolf was born in 1857, and the family moved to DresdenDresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
to give their child better educational opportunities. Leopold began making glass models of exotic flowers which he had seen depicted in books. Prince Camille de Rohan heard about his work, and commissioned 100 models of orchids in his private collection. In 1863, the Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde Dresden
Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde Dresden
The State Museum of Zoology in Dresden is a natural history museum that houses 10,000-50,000 specimens, including skeletons and large insect collections. Many are types. The collection suffered war damage and whilst catalogued the database is not computerized. Loans are possible and material can...
commissioned Leopold to produce twelve models of sea anenomes. While these designs were based on drawings in books, Leopold was soon able to use his earlier drawings to produce highly detailed models of other species, and his reputation quickly spread.
Leopold began selling models of marine invertebrates to museums, aquaria, universities and other educational bodies who wanted visual aids but were unable to satisfactorily preserve such animals. These represented a great improvement on previous methods of presenting such creatures: drawings, pressing, photographs and papier-mâché
Papier-mâché
Papier-mâché , alternatively, paper-mache, is a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp, sometimes reinforced with textiles, bound with an adhesive, such as glue, starch, or wallpaper paste....
or wax models. He gradually extended his range of work by studying marine animals from the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
, Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
and Mediterranean, and later constructed an aquarium at his house, in order to keep live specimens from which to model.
Contact with Harvard
Sea slug
Sea slug is a common name used for several different groups of saltwater snails that either lack a shell or have only an internal shell, in other words this name is used for various lineages of marine gastropod mollusks that are either not conchiferous or appear not to be.The phrase "sea slug" is...
s, jellyfish
Jellyfish
Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. Medusa is another word for jellyfish, and refers to any free-swimming jellyfish stages in the phylum Cnidaria...
, and other animals for the Boston Society of Natural History Museum (now the Museum of Science). These models were seen by George Lincoln Goodale
George Lincoln Goodale
George Lincoln Goodale was an American botanist, born at Saco, Maine. He graduated at Amherst College in 1860 and at Harvard Medical School in 1863, after which he practiced at Portland, Me., until 1867; became professor of natural science and applied chemistry at Bowdoin; and at Harvard was...
, who was in the process of setting up the Harvard Botanical Museum. In 1886, he travelled to meet the Blaschkas and, with some difficulty, convinced them to produce some new plant models for him. Some reports claim that Goodale saw a few glass orchids in the room where they met, surviving from the work two decades earlier. This commission required the Blaschkas to undertake considerable research into both the plant species and the manufacturing process.
The first few models the Blaschkas sent were badly damaged by U.S. Customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
, but Goodale nonetheless appreciated the craftwork and showed them widely. Among the local residents who saw them were Elizabeth C. and Mary Lee Ware, who offered to pay for a long-term contract for the Blaschkas to produce models of plants for the museum. In 1887, the parties signed a contract for the Blaschkas to spend half their time producing models for Harvard. They continued to spend their remaining time making marine invertebrate models. This time, arrangements were made to send the models directly to Harvard, where museum staff could open them safely, observed by Customs staff. In 1890, the Blaschkas signed an exclusive ten-year contract with Harvard, for 8,800 marks per year, to make glass flowers
Glass Flowers
The Glass Flowers, formally The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, is a famous collection of highly-realistic glass botanical models at the Harvard Museum of Natural History at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
. It was decided that they should be asked to model the widest possible range of plants, and some were to be shown being pollinated
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
, or diseased in some way.
Production of the Glass Flowers
The Blaschkas used a mixture of clear and coloured glass, sometimes supported with wire, to produce their models. Many pieces were painted, this work being entirely given to Rudolf. In order to represent plants which were not native to the Dresden area, the two studied the exotic plant collections at Stillnitz Castle and the Dresden Botanical GardenBotanischer Garten der Technischen Universität Dresden
The Botanischer Garten der Technischen Universität Dresden , also known as the Botanischer Garten Dresden or Dresden Botanical Garden, is a botanical garden maintained by the Dresden University of Technology. It is located in the north-west section of the Großer Garten at Stübelallee 2, Dresden,...
, and also grew some from seed sent from the United States. In 1892, Rudolf was sent on a trip to the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and the U.S. to study additional plants, making extensive drawings and notes.
Rudolf made a second trip to the U.S. in 1895. While he was overseas, Leopold died. Rudolf continued to work alone. By the early twentieth century, he found that he was unable to buy glass of suitably high quality, and so started making his own.
Rudolf continued making models for Harvard until 1938. By then aged 80, old and weary, he announced that he would retire. Neither he nor his father had taken on an apprentice, and Rudolf left no successor. For Harvard alone, Leopold and Rudolf made more than 3,000 models, 780 showing species at life-size, with others showing magnified details.