Lot 39 Dα

The “Zweifler” from 1930 is one of Ernst Barlach’s most striking and exceptionally personal sculptures. The figure, which the artist also depicted in a version in wood (Laur 612) shortly before his death in 1937, can be read as a reflection of Barlach’s own mental state – burdened by the increasing nationalistic denunciations of him since the late 1920s.
He had already developed the basic form in a drawing of 1912 and then in his lithograph “Der Blinde” (Laur Druckgraphik 52) of 1918. This image appeared on the cover of Adolf von Hatzfeld’s autobiographical novella “Franziskus”, one of the most important works of German expressionism: von Hatzfeld himself had lost his sight in 1913. The lithograph accordingly presents the figure with his eyes covered by a strip of cloth, but Barlach discarded this in the later sculptural version.
The robe combines the kneeling body of the “Zweifler” into a unified whole. The lowered head tilted slightly to the side, the face marked by anxious tension and the arms stretched out against the body with the hands cramped together reveal an inner conflict. The entire composition of this expressionist masterpiece very intensely and clearly conveys the struggle of a figure veritably wrestling with himself.