Lot 445 D

Bronze relief. 34.5 x 31 x 9 cm. At the lower edge signed "KOLLWITZ" and with the foundry mark "H.NOACK BERLIN". - In very good condition. With a fine dark, partially bronze-coloured patina. - Posthumous cast.

We would like to thank Annette Seeler, Berlin, for her confirmatory examination. Ms. Seeler is compiling the oeuvre catalogue of the sculptures by Käthe Kollwitz for the Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Cologne. The work will be included in the catalogue raisonné of sculptures by Käthe Kollwitz currently in preparation.

Provenance
Galerie Alex Vömel, Düsseldorf (probably purchased there in the 1960s); since then in family ownership

Literature
Hans Kollwitz (ed.), Käthe Kollwitz, Ich will leben in dieser Zeit, Berlin 1962, nr. 46; Werner Timm: Protokoll zum plastischen Werk von Käthe Kollwitz, in: Herwig Guratzsch (ed.), Käthe Kollwitz - Druckgraphik, Handzeichnungen, Plastik, exhib.cat. Wilhelm-Busch-Museum Hanover 1990, nr. 45, p. 57 colour illus.; Martin Fritsch (ed.), Käthe Kollwitz. Zeichnung, Graphik, Plastik, Leipzig 1999, p. 346, colour illus. p. 347; Martin Fritsch/ Josephine Gabler, Käthe Kollwitz - Bildhauerin aus Leidenschaft. Das plastische Werk, cat. Käthe Kollwitz Museum Berlin, Berlin 2011, p. 91, colour illus.

The bronze relief was conceived for the family grave which Käthe Kollwitz and her siblings had acquired for themselves and their spouses at the central cemetery Berlin-Friedrichsfelde. The younger sister Lisbeth Stern, who was especially attached to Käthe Kollwitz throughout her entire life, had asked the artist for a sculptural work for the grave after the death of her husband in 1934. For the composition, Käthe Kollwitz was inspired by the poem line "Ruht im Frieden seiner Hände" (Resting in the Peace of his Hands) from Goethes "West-östlichem Diwan" (West-Eastern Divan).