Theodor Friedl

Friedl was born on 13 February 1842 in Vienna, Austrian Empire. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Anton Dominik Fernkorn. Among his first major commissions was a program of architectural sculpture for the 1877 Vienna Stock Exchange, a collaboration with the Danish-Austrian Neoclassical architect Theophil Hansen. The program included a quadriga, six full-figure statues, and a series of frieze panels around the cornice line. The same year Friedl had also begun a long-term working relationship with Viennese architects Fellner & Helmer for theaters across Europe, transmitting variations of the Viennese Neoclassical Ringstraße Style to Sofia, Brno, Berlin, etc. Friedl died on 5 September 1900 in Warth, Austria-Hungary. He was buried with honors at the Vienna Central Cemetery, with a portrait relief on his tomb by sculptor Leopold Kosig.

Friedl's major work includes: • Vienna Stock Exchange, for architect Theophil Hansen, 1877 • two finial Pegasus statues for the Stadttheater Augsburg, for Fellner & Helmer, 1877 (removed) • Cupid and Psyche, marble, Belvedere, Vienna, 1882 • exterior and interior work at the Mahen Theatre, Brno, 1882, for Fellner & Helmer, 1882 • interior and exterior work, Municipal Theatre of Karlovy Vary, for Fellner & Helmer, 1886 • pediment sculpture and all other facade sculpture, State Opera, Prague, for Fellner & Helmer and other architects, 1888 • Komische Oper Berlin, for Fellner & Helmer, 1892 • freestanding Horse Tamer statue, Maria-Theresien-Platz, 1893 • reliefs on the Liberec City Hall, Liberec, for architect Franz Neumann, 1893 • ceiling reliefs in the Dutch Hall and Italian Hall, in the Palais Lanckoroński, Vienna, for Fellner & Helmer, 1895 (razed)