Bertrand Freiesleben

Bertrand Freiesleben (born 4 October 1967 in Lübeck, West Germany) is a German artist.

His father is a microbiologist and his mother a hand-weaver. They both have always been encouraging his musical and artistic talents since early age. His encounter with Henry Moore and Emilio Vedova during the 80's influenced his career choice. After Graduating from Johanneum zu Lübeck and the completion of his civil service, he studied sculpture at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel. However, he abandoned his studies to relocate to New York City where he worked as a conceptual artist till 1992. Back in Germany, he studied both History of Art and Philosophy at the Free University of Berlin till 1998. The same year he received the Grand Prix de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts (Prix de portrait Paul-Louis Weiller) of the Institut de France. After the completion of his studies, he was teaching compositional analysis and surface geometry at the Institute of Art History of Free University of Berlin till 2005. In 2000 he was invited as a guest professor at Université Paris 8.

Freiesleben works only from live models and for the past two decades is devoted to sculpted portraits.

He is married to the painter Eva Scheide and they have three children. They live and work in Berlin, Germany.

• 1995: Christian Modersohn
• 2005: Walter Scheel
• 2006: Rolf Hoppe, Kurt Biedenkopf, Viktor Korchnoi
• 2007: Richard von Weizsäcker, Peter Sodann, Ralf Dahrendorf, Walter Kempowski, Egon Bahr
• 2008: Roman Herzog, Klaus von Dohnanyi, Henning Voscherau, Hans-Jochen Vogel, Uwe Seeler
• 2009: Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, Hans von Dohnanyi, Kurt Masur, Walter Scheel
• 2010: Johannes Heesters, Hans Riegel, Erol Sander, Vladimir Kramnik, Wolfgang Menge

• 1998: Grand Prix de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts (Prix de portrait Paul-Louis Weiller), Institut de France, Paris, France
• 2010: Auslandsstipendium der Kulturstiftung der Länder

• Friedrich Naumann Foundation
• ThyssenKrupp AG
• Humboldt University of Berlin
• DGFP German Association for Personnel Management
• FDP Free Democratic Party
• LSE London School of Economics
• City of Solingen
• Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte NC
• HSV Museum, Hamburg