Statue of Immanuel Kant after Friedrich Hagemann

What it is

This is a marble bust of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, made after a work by Friedrich Hagemann. It stands in the Museum Friedrichswerdersche Kirche in Berlin. The photograph was taken in 2005 by Andreas Praefcke. The image shows an older man with a furrowed brow, deep-set eyes and a thin mouth. He wears a draped garment like a toga. The bust stands in a church interior with stained glass and other statues behind it.

Why it matters

A bust like this shows how Kant was remembered after his death in 1804. Sculptures of thinkers were often made to honor them and to shape how the public saw them. The object is a later monument rather than a portrait made during Kant's life. It shows what later Berlin audiences thought Kant looked like and how they wanted to honor him.

Look closer

• What features of the face and the toga-like clothing might be meant to suggest wisdom or seriousness?
• Why might a museum place a sculpture of a philosopher inside a former church?
• What does a bust made later tell us about Kant that a portrait made during his life might not?