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Lot Essay
Dr. Ursel Berger has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Kolbe was one of the most influential and successful German sculptors of the twentieth century, and one of the chief proponents of the idealistic female nude in art. He began his career studying painting under Max Klinger in Munich, before moving to Rome in 1898 where he began to sculpt under the influence of Prussian sculptor Louis Tuaillon. Upon his return to Germany in 1901, Kolbe first lived in Leipzig and then moved to Berlin in 1904, abandoning painting completely at this point in his career. He was accepted into Berlin’s artistic society and admitted to the Berlin Secession, ultimately succeeding in attracting the support of Paul Cassirer, a leading dealer of the time.
Meerweibchen was conceived in 1921 and is an energetic and dynamic sculpture of a mermaid. It is closely related to Najade (Naiad, or “water nymph”) of 1912 (revised edition 1919), which depicts a female form in a similar kneeling position, but with her arms outstretched horizontally rather than flung over her head. Unsurprisingly, Najade was originally conceived as a fountain sculpture, and according to Ursel Berger, Meerweibchen was possibly designed as a counterpart for it (op. cit., p. 248).
The first documented owner of this cast was Dr. Franz Herbert Hirschland of Essen, an art collector and engineer who moved to the United States to build a factory at the request of the German industrial corporation Chemische Fabrik Th. Goldschmidt. Over the years he amassed a wonderful collection of artworks by Georg Kolbe, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, and many more. Several of these works are now in museum collections, including Cézanne’s Gardanne (vue verticale) which was gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1957.
Kolbe was one of the most influential and successful German sculptors of the twentieth century, and one of the chief proponents of the idealistic female nude in art. He began his career studying painting under Max Klinger in Munich, before moving to Rome in 1898 where he began to sculpt under the influence of Prussian sculptor Louis Tuaillon. Upon his return to Germany in 1901, Kolbe first lived in Leipzig and then moved to Berlin in 1904, abandoning painting completely at this point in his career. He was accepted into Berlin’s artistic society and admitted to the Berlin Secession, ultimately succeeding in attracting the support of Paul Cassirer, a leading dealer of the time.
Meerweibchen was conceived in 1921 and is an energetic and dynamic sculpture of a mermaid. It is closely related to Najade (Naiad, or “water nymph”) of 1912 (revised edition 1919), which depicts a female form in a similar kneeling position, but with her arms outstretched horizontally rather than flung over her head. Unsurprisingly, Najade was originally conceived as a fountain sculpture, and according to Ursel Berger, Meerweibchen was possibly designed as a counterpart for it (op. cit., p. 248).
The first documented owner of this cast was Dr. Franz Herbert Hirschland of Essen, an art collector and engineer who moved to the United States to build a factory at the request of the German industrial corporation Chemische Fabrik Th. Goldschmidt. Over the years he amassed a wonderful collection of artworks by Georg Kolbe, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, and many more. Several of these works are now in museum collections, including Cézanne’s Gardanne (vue verticale) which was gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1957.