Lot 18 R

With this monumental animal sculpture, a unique work by Ewald Mataré is making its first public appearance in over eight decades. It is a one-of-a-kind piece and the largest animal bronze by the artist ever to be offered on the auction market.
Mataré was commissioned to create “Stehende Kuh” by his friend, the art collector Dr Udo Rukser (1892-1971). Rukser, who was born in Poznań, studied law and opened a successful practice for international law in Berlin. Having greatly enjoyed art and culture since his youth, he built up a significant collection of modern art and maintained diverse connections with the German art and literary scenes. After 1933 he first gave up his position as editor of a law journal because he refused to carry out its “aryanisation”, and he then also closed his practice. Together with his Jewish wife Dora, who was the sister of Dada artist Hans Richter, he withdrew into an “inner emigration” by Lake Constance. There the couple purchased the Oberbühlhof, an estate on the Höri peninsula, which they successfully converted into a commercial orchard.
In 1938 Rukser asked Ewald Mataré to produce an animal statue for the well at his estate. The sculptor began working on it in the summer of that year, as he describes in his journal. “27 July 1938: I’ve landed here in Schienen, by Lake Constance […] Removed from every sort of commerce, I live here […] near Dr Udo Rukser because that’s where I’m supposed to design a decoration for a trough in the yard in front of the stall. […] I want to keep the little cow that I now want to make for his well rather stout in its forms because I consider a sturdy, clear form best-suited for outside and next to the well.”
“2 November 1938: Today I stopped with my cow for Rukser by Lake Constance. […] I repeatedly get lost in details, but then they don’t really interest me nearly as much as I initially thought. Still, in general, it’s become a good work of mine. I’m curious about its expressive power in the open air because, on site, it will stand 2m tall in an open space” (cited in: Sabine Maja Schilling/Guido de Werd, Ewald Mataré. Das plastische Werk, Kleve 2024, vol. II, p. 297).
But it would never be installed at the intended location. After Mataré had first had the statue produced as a terracotta model (cf. Schilling/de Werd 157) and then cast in bronze, he shipped the completed work to Lake Constance in January 1939. However, the Ruksers would already leave Oberbühlhof in March and emigrate to Chile; they took the statue for the fountain with them as part of their art collection. In Chile they settled down on a farm near Valparaíso. In addition to farming, Rukser was also active there as co-editor of a German exiles’ journal and researched the influence of German literature on Hispanic culture.
The statue for the well remained in the family’s possession in Chile. As an extraordinary unique work, it now represents the unique legacy of an exceptional art collector and his friendship with Ewald Mataré.