Ernst Barlach
Lesende Mönche II (Die Buchleser)
1921
Bronze. Height 13.8 cm. Signed 'E. Barlach' lower right and foundry mark "H. NOACK BERLIN" below. The series of 20 casts announced by Alfred Flechtheim was fulfilled only with a few unnumbered pieces. - Fine, golden-brown patina.
Ernst Barlach had been working on the theme of the "Lesende Mönche" since 1921 and developed three slightly varied versions. Version II was based on a clay model (Laur 319) and is the most elaborate version.
Catalogue Raisonné
Laur 320; Schult 249
Provenance
Galerie Alex Vömel, Düsseldorf (with label); private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia
Literature
Carl Dietrich Carls, Ernst Barlach. Das plastische, graphische und dichterische Werk, Berlin 1931, p. 34; Hans-Werner Schmidt und Peter Thurmann, Ernst Barlach. Mehr als ich, exhib. cat. Kunsthalle Kiel 1989, p. 84
Exhibitions
Cf. Berlin and Düsseldorf 1930 (Galerie Alfred Flechtheim), Bronzen von Ernst Barlach, cat. no. 14 ("Die beiden Buchleser"); Hamburg 1948 (Galerie Rudolf Hoffmann), Ernst Barlach. Gedächtnisausstellung, cat. no. 11; Bremen 1959 (Kunsthalle), Ernst Barlach, cat. no. 23. n. ill.; Frankfurt 1981 (Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath), Ernst Barlach. 51 Bronzen, cat. no. 20; Berlin 1981 (Galerie Nierendorf), Ernst Barlach. Einundfünfzig Bronzen, cat. no. 20, ill. p. 25