MINIATURES

                                                                            Richard Kissling with his dog Swiss sculptor Richard Kissling, the sculptor who designed the Rizal Monument, was born on April 14, 1848, Wolfwil, in the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland. As a young boy, he fashioned figures on dough, telling his parents of his wish of becoming a sculptor. Young Richard started his training in sculpturing as a plasterer in Solothurn. Then moving to stones and granite, his first commissioned works were gravestones. At age 22, he went to Rome to work and train under eminent Swiss sculptor Ferdinand Schloeth. (1818-1891) After 13 years in Rome, he went back to Switzerland, where one of his works, a bust of Alfred Escher, was noticed in the Zürich Exposition of 1883. It won him a commission work to build the fountain/monument honoring Escher in the Hauptbahnhof Zürich (Zurich Central Railway Station). Swiss National Hero In 1892, Kissling won the competition to design the monument