Bronze sculpture. Height 69 cm (cast-with plinth 2.6 x 11.7 x 12.5 cm). Monogrammed and dated ES 52 on plinth at rear left. - With green patina. - The bronze probably a singular cast (unique specimen), made in the context of the larger than life version of the "Pandora" from 1951 (Jörgens-Lendrum 264).
Not recorded by Jörgens-Lendrum; see Jörgens-Lendrum 264
The larger than life (height 240 cm) model of Edwin Scharff's "Pandora" dates from 1951, it was cast in two exemplars in the years 1951/1953 by the foundry H. Schmäke, Düsseldorf: one cast now located in the Edwin-Scharff-Museum Neu-Ulm as the artist's legacy to his native city Neu-Ulm, the other cast in Antwerp, in the Open-Air Museum for Sculpture Middelheim, acquired 1963 from the artist's heirs.
The figure offered here, monogrammed and dated "52", differs compared to the large monumental version and shows finer vivid details of modelling. This gives Pandora in spite of the great "majesty" and "aloofness" of her attitude (Helga Jörgens-Lendrum, in: Der Bildhauer Edwin Scharff, Untersuchungen zu Leben und Werk, Mit einem Katalog der figürlichen Plastik, diss. Göttingen 1994, unpublished manuscript with cat. rais., S. 237 ff.) a sensual expression less austere. This bronze version, unknown of until now, therefore cannot be considered as a simple reduction of the larger "Pandora".
Certificate
We would like to thank Helga Gutbrod, Edwin Scharff Museum, Städtische Sammlungen Neu-Ulm, for kind information confirming authenticity after examination.
Provenance
Formerly private collection, The Hague
Literature
see for large version: Gottfried Sello, Edwin Scharff, Hamburg 1956, with ill. p. 114 f. ("Pandora", Bronze, 1952/1953 and "Bekleidete Pandora" (Dressed Pandora, plaster); exhib. cat. Edwin Scharff, Gedächtnis-Ausstellung, Städtische Galerie München, Munich 1956, cat. nr. 39 without ill. ("Pandora, unbekleidet", - Pandora, Undressed - 1951, Bronze); exhib. cat. Edwin Scharff, Retrospektive, Skulpturen, Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Graphik. Zum 100. Geburtstag des Künstlers, i.a. Edwin-Scharff-Museum, Neu-Ulm 1987, cat. nr. 68 with ill. p. 143 ("Pandora" 1951, Bronze, Edwin-Scharff-Museum, Neu-Ulm)