Käthe Kollwitz - Grabrelief (Ruht im Frieden seiner Hände) - image-1

Lot 174 D

Käthe Kollwitz - Grabrelief (Ruht im Frieden seiner Hände)

Auction 1188 - overview Cologne
04.12.2021, 11:00 - Modern and Contemporary Art - Day Sale
Estimate: 10.000 € - 12.000 €
Result: 10.000 € (incl. premium)

Käthe Kollwitz

Grabrelief (Ruht im Frieden seiner Hände)
1935/1936

Bronze relief Height 35 cm. Width 31.3 cm. Depth 8.7 cm Signed 'KOLLWITZ' and with foundry mark "H. NOACK BERLIN" on the lower edge at centre. Presumably one of the 36-37 bronze casts made from model IV since 1958/1959. - Black-brown patina.

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).

Catalogue Raisonné

Seeler 30

Provenance

Former private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia, since then in family posession

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.