Background
Christen was born in Buochs, canton of Nidwalden, Switzerland.
Christen was born in Buochs, canton of Nidwalden, Switzerland.
In 1785 he became a pupil of the portrait painter Johann Melchior Wyrsch in Lucerne, but soon turned to sculpture. From 1788 to 1791 he worked in Rome under the supervision of Alexander Trippel and then settled in Basel. In later life he was an inmate of Thorberg Castle, at that time a lunatic asylum, where he died.
