Pier Pander - Two brothers

Two brothers. Plaster plaque from 1908 by the famous sculptor Pier Pander. The object is in good condition. Dimensions 28x34 cm.

Pier Jacobs Pander (Drachten, June 20, 1864 - Rome, September 6, 1919) was a Dutch sculptor and designer of medals.
Pander was the son of a poor boatman. When he was still a boy, his artistic wood carving was noticed. Several wealthy people, including the journalist Johannes de Koo and the Mennonite pastor of Drachten, enabled him to follow an art education at the Applied Arts School Quellinus Amsterdam and then at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1885 he won the Prix de Rome for sculpture, but at the same time a serious illness disabled him. Pander moved to Rome in 1893, where he set up a studio. He traveled regularly to the Netherlands, where he became best known after he designed the coin with the image of Queen Wilhelmina in 1898. After a while he bought a house in De Knipe for his parents, who had continued to live in their boat until then. During one of these trips to the Netherlands he also met the young Jan Mankes, who was deeply impressed by the famous Pander.
Pander also made a medal in honor of the inauguration of Queen Wilhelmina.

Pander was friends with writer/poet Louis Couperus, who lived in Nice and Rome between 1900 and 1915. Couperus commissioned Pander to make a medallion of his wife Elisabeth Couperus-Baud. Pander eventually died in Rome from tuberculosis.

More information can be found on the website of Pier Pander Museum and Temple of Historical Center Leeuwarden.