Franz Iffland was a German sculptor and painter who worked during the late 19th and early 20th century. He was born in 1862 in Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia. Many of his sculptures were influenced by the jugendstil movement but late in his career, beginning in the mid-1920s, he produced a number of art deco sculptures.
Iffland received his formal training at the Königliche akademische Hochschule für die Bildenden Künste. He was primarily known for his small bronze statues of young children and bust sculptures of young women. He was a painter as well, however sculpture dominated his output during his career.
Much of his work was produced during the art nouveau or "jugendstil" period from 1887 to 1910, but late in his career he produced a number of art deco bronzes of nude women and genre statues of ordinary working people such as blacksmiths and farmers. One of Iffland's contemporaries, who worked during the same period as Iffland in Berlin and did similar types of sculptures, was Otto Schmidt-Hofer.
He also executed a few animal sculptures and sporting figure statues of archers, javelin throwers, and polo players. He presented his work in bronze at the Große Berliner Kunstaustellung (Great Berlin Art Exhibition) in 1893.
Iffland died in 1935 in Berlin, Germany. He is remembered as one of Germany's finest sculptors during the late 19th and early 20th century.
