Lot 74 D

The bronze sculpture “Mädchen mit großem Tuch” belongs to the series of images of girls that Gerhard Marcks began creating in the mid-1920s: the important sculptor either based these works on models from classical antiquity or had one of his daughters pose for him. Although Marcks’s work journal for “Gips & Bronze 1935–1969” (No. 170, Archiv Gerhard Marcks-Stiftung, Bremen) identifies his daughter Ute as the model for “Mädchen mit großem Tuch”, the girlish features suggest that his youngest daughter Gottliebe (1923–2016) posed for the head.
Featuring a balanced ratio of engaged and relaxed elements, Marcks has conceived a young, tall figure of a girl; both her hands hold a piece of drapery, which is laid round her shoulders, and she enters into a fascinating relationship with it. The cloth, whose outward purpose is to dry, conceal or clothe, takes on a protective and framing function in Marcks’s work. Particularly on the right, it additionally serves as a stabilising element, the way that a long staff or dog positioned at the figure’s side can be used in classical sculptures. After having depicted this motif for the first time in his “Schreitende Frau mit Tuch” from 1926, Marcks has used the accentuated motif of the stepping figure to successfully create a more dynamic interpretation of the theme in “Mädchen mit großem Tuch”, in which the legs and arms suggest a more pronounced movement. The sculpture coming up for auction is a version that was revised by the artist in 1969 and produced by the foundry Barth in Berlin.