Gerhard Marcks - Kleine Schwestern - image-1

Lot 218 D

Gerhard Marcks - Kleine Schwestern

Auction 1004 - overview Cologne
30.11.2012, 00:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 25.000 € - 30.000 €
Result: 79.300 € (incl. premium)

Gerhard Marcks

Kleine Schwestern
1934

bronze sculpture Höhe 69,5 cm Auf der Plinthe hinten rechts monogrammiert G.M. sowie hinten links mit dem eingeritzten Künstlersignum versehen. Gießerei Barth, Berlin - - Mit schöner, mittelbraun-olivfarbener Patina.

The two girls who served as models for this sculpture were the artist's own daughters. Turned to each other, they are standing in a posture of peaceful unity. Despite the dignified gracefulness of the two figures, Marcks succeeded in conveying an impression of great intimacy, created by their clasped hands. While the girl on the right is leaning against her sister, with her head looking down, the other girl is in a relaxed contrapposto position, confidently looking ahead. The composition is marked by a balanced ensemble and juxtaposition of delicate forms. It is a sensitive combination of posture and movement. A gentle interplay of vertical and diagonal axes adds an air of harmony to the two figures, calling to mind the art of antiquity.
The sculpture was created in 1934. Only a year earlier Gerhard Marcks had been removed from his job as a teacher at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Burg Giebichenstein. In 1934, however, he had the good fortune to receive a scholarship at Villa Massimo in Rome, thus escaping the Nazi regime for a time.
Martina Rudloff shows that the same motif had previously been applied to a group of figures called 'Two Little Girls' in 1926 (see Rudloff 147). Moreover, it reminds of a sculpture by Gottfried Schadow, dated 1795/97, entitled 'Luise and Friederike of Prussia'. Primarily, however, Gerhard Marcks's interest dealt with the canonical ideas of Antique sculpture.

Literature

i.a.: Alfred Hentzen, Besprechung der Ausst. in der Galerie Buchholz, in: Kunst der Nation 1935, vol. III, no. 2; illus. p. 2; Alfred Hentzen, Deutsche Bildhauer der Gegenwart, Berlin without year (1935), p. 112; Herbert von Buttlar, Antike Plastik und Plastik der Gegenwart, in: Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft, 1949/1950, vol. XV, p. 270; Adolf Rieth, Gerhard Marcks, Recklinghausen 1959, p. 15

Exhibitions

Berlin 1935 (Galerie Buchholz); Hanover 1936 (Kestner-Gesellschaft), Gerhard Marcks, with title illus.; Cologne 1964 (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum), Gerhard Marcks, cat. no. 12 with illus.