Ferdinand Pettrich

Friedrich August Ferdinand Pettrich was a German sculptor active in Germany, Brazil, the United States, and Italy.

He was an internationally famous portrait sculptor who created busts of political figures in Washington D.C. as well as Native Americans such as Tecumseh. In the early 1840s he moved to Brazil to become the Court Sculptor to Emperor Dom Pedro II.

Born in Dresden to sculptor Franz Pettrich, court sculptor to Elector Frederick Augustus III of Saxony, Pettrich studied in Rome under Bertel Thorvaldsen. After achieving fame in Europe, in 1835 Pettrich and his wife moved to the United States, first in Philadelphia, then Washington, D.C. Pettrich died in Rome in 1872.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023