Lot 206 Dα

Ernst Barlach relocated to Güstrow in 1910. His works of those years are sometimes defined by a taste for a grotesque and fanciful materiality, reflecting the simple life of farmers and day labourers, shepherds and market women. Far from any bucolic clichés, Barlach's figures stand in a direct relationship with the nature and lifeworld surrounding them, resisting the dictated forms of bourgeois existence with a quiet gesture: “The dramatically moved beings created by this artist are not representatives of their own 'particular little feelings', they do not ponder subjective ills; instead, they point beyond egocentrism to social behaviour, they make themselves the spokespersons of those who live in the shadows. Robust and shy, timid and full of hopes for the future, they emerge out of their seclusion and into the light.” (Elmar Jansen, Ein halbmythischer Mann namens Barlach, in: exhib. cat. Ernst Barlach: Bildhauer, Zeichner, Graphiker, Schriftsteller 1870-1938, Antwerpen 1994-1995, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, p. 289).
“Der Einsame” is distinguished by his bulky and, at the same time, skilfully dynamised body. Holding a candle in his left hand, the loosely hanging robes reveal part of the upper torso. The man concentratedly directs his gaze into space and, in doing so, seems so captivated that he is in danger of losing his balance. It is this slow movement paired with the searching gaze that provide the figure with a deeply scenic aspect. In addition to the plaster model for the present bronze, an only slightly larger wooden figure (Laur 167) was created in 1911. Initially in the collection of Tilla Durieux, it is now located at the Hamburger Kunsthalle.