Lot 34 D α

In 1905 the Prussian “Ministry of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs” commissioned August Gaul to create a fountain featuring a monumental animal sculpture for the city of Kaliningrad (then the German city of Königsberg). It was to depict the motif of two fighting bison, which Gaul had already formulated in a small preliminary design from 1904 (see Gabler 118). Based on this design, the sculptor created an initial, highly expressive model version: this unique work exists only in the form of the bronze cast offered here.
In this piece Gaul has intensified his previously quite static treatment of the subject into an extremely dramatic scene: “In contrast to the initial design, the two primal animals directly crash into one another. By distinctly emphasising the animals’ musculature through his modelling, Gaul develops a powerful and dynamic combat scene. The rough handling of the work’s surface points to its character as a model recognisably conceived for a larger format” (Josefine Gabler, in: Werkverzeichnis August Gaul, p. 116).
In 1913, following extended preparatory work, the monumental “Wisentbrunnen” was installed in front of the district and regional courthouse of Kaliningrad (see Gabler 133). However, in contrast to our model, the large-format version has lost a considerable amount of dynamic tension, as the art critic Karl Scheffler already notes in 1920: “But to the extent […] that the group increasingly becomes a unified whole, the original passion of the struggle, the primal violence of aggressive force, disappears.” (cited in: Gabler, op. cit., p. 128).