Early 20th Century Vienna Bergmann Bronze "Boxing Frogs"

There were many bronze foundries operating in Vienna in this period, but it was Bergman’s which became the most celebrated, working with a number of celebrated Viennese sculptors at the turn of the 20th Century, such as Bruno Zach, to produce designs for his famous bronze figures. Bergman bronzes are especially famous for having utilised a technique for decorating the bronzes called cold painting. Cold painting as a technique developed in Vienna in the late 19th Century, and involved the application of several layers of paint added to the bronze after firing. It was used to make fashionable collectors’ items. Bergman figures came in three main forms: animal figures, Orientalist sculptures, and erotic figures in the Art Nouveau style. His animal figures were often whimsical and humorous, and often satirical. They have become highly sought-after collectors’ items today. Bergman’s Orientalist sculptures are equally highly sought-after. He was producing these figures at a time when interest in the exotic lands of the Middle East and North Africa was at its peak among Europe’s artists and buyers.

Globally celebrated Austrian metalworker Franz Xaver Bergman(n) is known for his bronze statuettes and figurines, which are rich with personality and alive with color. 

Bergmann's father, Franz Bergmann, Sr., apprenticed under Josef Ott and became a professional caster and chaser, and moved from Gablonz, Bohemia, to Vienna in 1860, where he opened a small foundry. There, he used what he’d learned about naturally patinating bronzes and created popular figurines and sculptures. At the turn of the century, Franz Xaver inherited the company from his father and opened a second foundry. 

At the Bergmann Foundry, Franz Xaver Bergmann created numerous bronze figures, employing a technique now known as “cold painting” that has since been lost to time. Bergmann’s early works were based on his father’s molds. He hired local workers to cast his own designs.

Bergmann’s works encompass an immense variety of subject matter. His foundry created bronzes of humanized animals, mythological creatures and animals in natural poses. Many of his statuettes are representative of his fondness for faraway lands and peoples, with a great number of his works depicting Native American, Asian, Persian and Arabian cultures. He's also known to have created some risqué Art Nouveau figurines — to some collectors, the Bergmann Foundry is known for its sculptures of women in various sensuous poses wearing ingeniously executed removable articles of bronze clothing.

Franz Xaver Bergmann’s recognized maker’s mark was a capital “B” inside a scrolled horseshoe, but Bergmann would employ the pseudonym "Nam Greb" — the reverse of his last name — on his racier pieces in order to keep his more conservative and conventional customers from connecting his name to those works. 

Bergmann had to close his company’s doors in 1930 owing to the financial strains that came with the Great Depression. He died in 1936 before the company could open again. His son, Robert Bergmann, reopened the foundry many years later and continued to own and operate it until his death in 1954.

Karl Fuhrmann & Co. purchased what remained of the Bergmann Foundry after Robert died. Franz Xaver Bergmann’s cast-bronze figures endure to this day and are highly prized by collectors and enthusiasts of figurative art.

Find antique Bergmann Foundry decorative objects on 1stDibs.