Heinrich Zille
Standesamt
1909
Pen an ink drawing on ivory-coloured light card, the motif outlined frame-like in pen and ink 16.1 x 25.9 cm / 16.7 x 27.2 cm Framed under glass. Signed and dated 'H. Zille. 09.' in India ink lower right. Stamped "Sporthumor" on lateral margins, crossed out in pencil, numbered "209" in ink to the right. - Drawing pin holes in the corners, the card minimally browned.
Heinrich Zille, who always kept a warm-heartedly humorous but watchful eye on his contemporaries in Berlin, was unable to resist a certain touch of sarcasm in this scene.
The scene is the register office: to the left, the formally dressed family of the bride, visibly satisfied and approving and just about to conclude a good deal. The bride on the right, who is dressed in white and in the final stages of pregnancy, uses a large bouquet of flowers to disguise her belly and has locked arms with her future husband who - elderly, portly and wealthy - also seems to be looking forward to becoming a newly-wed. The relevant postings “Needy Mothers”, “Mothers” and “Protections for Mothers” provide a commentary, so to speak, on the events and interpret the approaching wedding as a measure to protect and charitably rescue the young bride, who seems to have a gleam of subterfuge in her eyes.
It is possible that this work was intended for “Sporthumor”, then a very popular humorous magazine in the tradition of “Simplicissimus”.
Provenance
Villa Grisebach, Heinrich Zille und das kritische Berlin, Berlin, 7 June 2002, Lot 1561; Private collection, Germany