Sale: 392 / Modern Art, June 09. 2012 in Munich Lot 36

 
Georg Kolbe - Kauernde


36
Georg Kolbe
Kauernde, 1917.
Bronze
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 39,040 / $ 42,163

(incl. surcharge)
Kauernde. 1917.
Bronze with black brown patina.
Berger 31. With monogram in ligature in rear right on plinth as well as with foundry mark "H Noack Berlin Friedenau". Presumably one of 15 copies, sold by Galerie Ferdinand Möller, Berlin, as of 1919. Including the follow-up editions, ca. 30 copies of this bronze are known of. 23,5 x 18,5 x 14,5 cm (9,2 x 7,2 x 5,7 in).
The addition "Friedenau" on foundry mark indicates an earlier cast.
Very fine cast with clear contrast and even patina.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Southern Germany (acquired in 1958 on the art and antiquity fair in the Haus der Kunst, Munich).

Georg Kolbe, one of the most successful sculptors of his time, first studied painting in Dresden and Munich. The sculpture of Rodin, which he studied closely during a sojourn of half a year in Paris in 1897, and Louis Tuaillon awakened Kolbe's interest in sculpture. When Kolbe moved to Rome in 1898, Tuaillon, the most important Neo-Classicist sculptor played an important role. Kolbe's first portrait sculptures were made under Tuaillon's guidance. After six years during which he also travelled in Italy, France, Belgium and Holland, Kolbe decided to return to Germany and moved to Berlin. He continued collecting new ideas and impressions during frequent trips abroad. In 1913 the sculptor left the 'Berliner Sezession' which he had joined in 1905 to join the 'Freie Sezession'. At the outbreak of the war in 1914 he was sent to East Prussia and Poland as a volunteer.

The almost symmetrical arrangement of the limbs adds an inner closeness to the squatting person that is also transferred to the plastic's spatial effect. The head alone, slightly bend backwards, breaks trough the closeness and opens an upwards spatial effect. The facial features of the squatting are determined by the closed eyes and a certain meditative tension, which must be seen in clear contrast to the rather earthbound physicality.

He remained in military service until 1918 when he was sent to the Black Forest as an infantryman. In the same year the Prussian Ministry of Cultural Affairs appointed him professor. Kolbe's early sculptures, simple, harmonious nudes influenced by Rodin, but also by Maillol, seek a harmony between the body and the soul. During the 1930s he turned towards a more heroic monumentality. In 1936 the 'Reichskulturkammer' accepted the 'Deutscher Künstlerbund', of which Kolbe was the chairman, as a member. Towards the end of the war the artist's house and studio were damaged so that he moved to Hiershagen in Silesia until the beginning of 1945. After his return to Berlin he underwent several eye operations, which were unsuccessful, however. In addition to this his cancer reoccurred and Kolbe died on 20 November 1947. Apart from his numerous portraits Kolbe , who was one of the first autonomous sculptors and thus no longer determined by his sponsors, concentrated on nude sculptures which influenced the following generation of sculptors. [KD].




36
Georg Kolbe
Kauernde, 1917.
Bronze
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 39,040 / $ 42,163

(incl. surcharge)