Friedrich Wilhelm Eugen Döll

A pupil under Ney, he spent time in Paris and Rome from 1770 to 1773 on behalf of Ernst (later duke of Gotha). In Rome he trained further under Raphael Mengs and Johann Friedrich Reiffenstein. On his return he was appointed court sculptor in 1781 and received commissions for busts, monuments and reliefs, particularly for the residences at Gotha, Anhalt-Dessau and Meiningen. In 1786 he became a professor (his own pupils included the painter Louise Seidler) and in 1787 was put in charge of art monuments in Gotha.

His masterworks are: • Faith, Love and Hope at the Hauptkirche in Lüneburg • 22 stucco high-reliefs at the princely riding-school at Hauptreliefs in Stuck an der fürstlichen Reitbahn in Dessau • lifesize statue of Catherine II of Russia as Minerva • Catherine II, with a maiden before her offering at an altar • Winckelmann's monument in the Rotonda in Rome • busts of Sappho and Raphael Mengs • The New Muses, Bas-relief • Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden on a horse, crowned by victories, bas-relief • lifesize figures of Minerva, a Muse and Hygieia; • grave-monument to the Gräfin von Einsiedel at Dresden and duke Karl von Meiningen; • monument to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing at the Wolfenbüttel library • Kepler's statue at Regensburg.