Lot: 719

Ernst Barlach (1870 Wedel - 1938 Rostock)
Sculpture 'Tanzende Alte' ('Tanzendes Weib'), 1920 (design), posthumous cast after 1951

Bronze, dark brown patina. H. 48.8 x 26.7 x 19.5 cm. Signed on the plinth: E. Barlach (incised), foundry mark on the side: H. NOACK BERLIN. Unnumbered copy from an edition of 12 unnumbered copies (1 copy from an unknown casting year, 11 further copies from casting years since 1951).

A decisive influence on Barlach's bronze sculptures was his trip to Russia in 1906. The simple physicality of peasant figures and Russian folk art strengthened his interest in the fundamental existential conditions of human beings, which he interpreted in his works. The depiction refers to a ‘Kulegraaksch’, which is referred to in Mecklenburg folklore as the village elder
and who attended all large weddings uninvited and entertained the guests with jokes and dances.

A decisive influence on Barlach's bronze sculptures was his trip to Russia in 1906. The simple physicality of peasant figures and Russian folk art strengthened his interest in the fundamental existential conditions of human beings, which he interpreted in his works. The depiction refers to a ‘Kulegraaksch’, which is referred to in Mecklenburg folklore as the village elder and who attended all large weddings uninvited and entertained the guests with jokes and dances.

Provenance: Friedrich Schult (friend, executor of Barlach's estate and author of the first catalogue raisonné); acquired directly from Schult by Prof. Hans Harmsen, Hamburg, presumably at the end of the 1950s and transferred to the possession of his son Hans-Christoph Harmsen; in 1984 the Harmsen family sold it to a private collector in southern Germany, and it has remained in the family's possession through inheritance ever since.

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Hammer Price: 15,000 €