Biography
Ernst Seger studied from 1884 at the Royal School of Arts and Crafts in Breslau under Robert Härtel (1884) and Christian Behrens (from 1886). In 1893/94 he deepened his studies at the Académie Julien and in the studio of Auguste Rodin in Paris, where he abandoned his initially academic style in favor of the current Art Nouveau and finally Neoclassicism. After his return to Germany in 1894, he opened his own studio in Berlin. He joined the Verein Berliner Künstler and was also an active member of the Allgemeine Deutsche Kunstgenossenschaft. Seger's talent was noticed from an early age and he received his first state commissions for large sculptures in public places and buildings as early as 1888. Kaiser Wilhelm II awarded him the title of Royal Prussian Professor in 1908. Seger took part in various major art exhibitions (Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung) in Berlin, for example in 1898 and 1912, where he was awarded a gold medal, and in 1937 and 1938. Best known today, however, are his delicate female nudes and dancers, which were produced in various materials, including ivory, chryselephantine and ceramic. The Berlin foundries Gladenbeck & Sohn and Robert Ksionsek & Co, Kunstgewerbliche Werkstätte, Berlin (RKB) were responsible for the execution of the chryselephantine and bronze figures, and in the 1930s Lauchhammer Kunstguss, Lauchhammer, was also responsible. Seger died in Berlin in 1939 at the age of 71.
