Ernst Barlach
Bildnis Tilla Durieux III
1912 (plaster model). After 1930
Bronze Height 18.5 cm Monogrammed 'E B' on the back of the neck to the right. Cast by Heinrich Noack, Berlin, without foundry mark (we would like to thank foundry Noack for confirmatory information). Cast aside from the fully signed edition mentioned by Laur. - Dark brown, tending towards red, patina. - Some small light traces of oxidation in places. - Accompanied by an unmounted dark varnished wooden base (17.9 x 10.8 x 10.8 cm).
This portrait head of the actress Tilla Durieux was one of the motifs that Alfred Flechtheim had planned to produce in a bronze edition in 1930 and of which only very few were actually cast at that time (cf. Elisabeth Laur, Ernst Barlach. Das plastische Werk, Güstrow 2006, p. 43, pp. 126/127). According to the expertise provided by Ernst Barlach the present piece is a “fine, old cast”, “which is presumably to be traced back to the initiative of Tilla Durieux, but was not made from the working model found in our archive”. The plaster model (Laur 180) was originally in the possession of Tilla Durieux. The present monogrammed bronze cast without a foundry mark was confirmed by the Noack foundry in Berlin after presentation. Busts of the portrait “Tilla Durieux III” can be found, for example, in the collections of the Stiftung Hermann F. Reemtsma, Hamburg, Georg-Kolbe-Museum, Berlin, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, Museum Ludwig, Cologne and Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal.
Catalogue Raisonné
Laur 181; Schult 127
Certificate
With an expertise from Ernst Barlach, Ernst Barlach Lizenzverwaltung, Ratzeburg, dated 8 February 2016
Provenance
Formerly private collection, Palatinate, in family possession since