Large-scale bronze sculpture depicting Achilles as a spear thrower, captured in a dynamic pose just before release. The figure wears a helmet and holds a round shield with figural relief decoration as well as a spear. The bronze features a rich patinated surface and is mounted on a rectangular gray marble base. Signed “Wandschneider” on the plinth. Wilhelm Georg Johannes Wandschneider (born 1866 in Plau am See; died 1942, Plau am See) was a German sculptor and medallist associated with the academic Berlin School of Sculpture. After initial training in his father’s painting workshop, he studied from 1886 onward at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin under artists including Julius Ehrentraut, Albert Wolff, and Reinhold Begas. Around 1900, Wandschneider was among the most successful monumental sculptors in Germany. He won numerous competitions and executed major monuments, fountains, and sculptural works both domestically and internationally, including imperial and state commissions as well as allegorical and mythological figures. His works were widely exhibited and received international recognition. Following the First World War, the collapse of public patronage led to economic hardship, and in 1925 he returned to his hometown of Plau, where he lived until his death. His life and oeuvre are today documented at the Prof. Wandschneider Sculpture Museum in Plau.

---

---