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拍品专文
'Sculpture, like all art, is the greatest expression of our time.' (Wilhelm Lehmbruck)
Torso eines jungen Weibes ("Torso of a young woman") (also titled Torso der grossen Stehenden or Lebensgrosser weiblicher Torso) marks an important point in Lehmbruck's oeuvre. Executed in Paris in 1910, shortly before the significant change in his style, this work can be seen as a culmination of Lehmbruck's earlier, more classical period. From 1910, Lehmbruck's sculptures feature the portraits of either someone closely related, or of his wife Anita, whom he married in 1908. In fact, all his female figures between 1909 and 1917 including the present work, bear the features of his wife.
In this work, although a torso, the contrapposto posture of the body is clearly visible and Anita Lehmbruck's full-flowing hair-style has been arranged into little curls that frame her face, so that it matches the classical style of the figure and suggests the timeless quality of a goddess. Coming from an academic background at the Dusseldorf Academy, where life study was situated at the heart of the academic hierarchy of training, Lehmbruck mastered the depiction of the naturalistic and it is striking how he captures Anita's features. Yet, similarly to Rodin, Lehmbruck also breaks from the classical tradition in the way that he not only depicts the appearance of a human being but also conveys a readable display of what is going on behind the facade. Although different in style, Torso eines jungen Weibes, with its slightly bent head and its expression of inwardness on the face and the lowered eyes, appears to be a foretaste of the series of Sinnende [Pensive women] which Lehmbruck began the same year.
With its diversity of stimulation and its atmosphere pulsing with constantly new artistic ideals, Paris was the necessary arena for Lehmbruck to develop his style. Having been an admirer of Rodin's work since 1904 and meeting Aristide Maillol in 1910, Torso eines jungen Weibes is a fine example of how Lehmbruck received stimuli from both artists. Formally less massive and voluptous than a Maillol, yet rounded and senusal and expressively more subtle than a Rodin, Torso eines jungen Weibes is intensely quiet and pensive, if not melancholic. Technically, there is another phenomenon to Lehmbruck's oeuvre which might have been inspired by Auguste Rodin. Similar to the latter, Lehmbruck continually explored elements of his sculptures by reducing them to fragments. Torso eines jungen Weibes originally derives from Grosse Stehende (1910), a two metre high standing figure which in turn inspired Kopf der grossen Stehenden/Gesenkter Frauenkopf of 1911. Divorced from the original context and wholeness of the completed standing figure, these works were transfromed into torsi, but also sculptures in their own right. Executed in cast stone, or Steinmasse, as he used to call it, Torso eines jungen Weibes is an example of the artist's preferred medium. The cast could later be painted in shades of grey, red, yellow or blue. Being coloured in a different tone each time, this technique, which Lehmbruck preferred to bronze, rendered each cast a unique work.
The nature of the casting of this piece is extremely interesting. The sculpture has an armature inside it and the way that the concrete sits on this armature would suggest that the construction of the work is more complex than a simple casting. This seems to be confirmed by the number of 'seams' running across the piece suggesting that the work may have been made in sections.
'Lehmbruck's work remains a torso...' are the opening words of Paul Westheim's monograph on Lehmbruck, published in 1919, the year of Lehmbruck's premature death, at the age of 38. With the artist's finest work concentrated into one decade - the years between 1910 and 1919 - Torso eines jungen Weibes stands at the beginning. From the moment it was executed, this work was famous, and stone casts of it were widely exhibited in major shows across Europe. In 1912, casts were shown at the Hagen Folkwang Museum, at the Berlin Secession, and in the celebrated Cologne Sonderbundaustellung. An example was also exhibited in 1914 at the Freie Secession and at the Berlin Freie Secession in 1919.
The present work was purchased by the famous art historian Kurt Badt. His groundbreaking essay, Die Plastik Wilhelm Lehmbrucks, which was published in the Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst, in 1920, continues to be a highly regarded reference document for Lehmbruck's work. Professor Schubert, the author of the catalogue raisonné considers the present work to be very close in quality to the one owned by the Nationalgalerie Berlin, whose cast was bought by Ludwig Justi in 1919. Other stone casts of the Torso eines jungen Weibes are now housed in the Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, the Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig, the Kunstmuseum, Basel and the Neue Staatsgalerie, Munich.
We are grateful to Professor Dr. D. Schubert (University of Heidelberg) for his assistance in researching the present work.
Torso eines jungen Weibes ("Torso of a young woman") (also titled Torso der grossen Stehenden or Lebensgrosser weiblicher Torso) marks an important point in Lehmbruck's oeuvre. Executed in Paris in 1910, shortly before the significant change in his style, this work can be seen as a culmination of Lehmbruck's earlier, more classical period. From 1910, Lehmbruck's sculptures feature the portraits of either someone closely related, or of his wife Anita, whom he married in 1908. In fact, all his female figures between 1909 and 1917 including the present work, bear the features of his wife.
In this work, although a torso, the contrapposto posture of the body is clearly visible and Anita Lehmbruck's full-flowing hair-style has been arranged into little curls that frame her face, so that it matches the classical style of the figure and suggests the timeless quality of a goddess. Coming from an academic background at the Dusseldorf Academy, where life study was situated at the heart of the academic hierarchy of training, Lehmbruck mastered the depiction of the naturalistic and it is striking how he captures Anita's features. Yet, similarly to Rodin, Lehmbruck also breaks from the classical tradition in the way that he not only depicts the appearance of a human being but also conveys a readable display of what is going on behind the facade. Although different in style, Torso eines jungen Weibes, with its slightly bent head and its expression of inwardness on the face and the lowered eyes, appears to be a foretaste of the series of Sinnende [Pensive women] which Lehmbruck began the same year.
With its diversity of stimulation and its atmosphere pulsing with constantly new artistic ideals, Paris was the necessary arena for Lehmbruck to develop his style. Having been an admirer of Rodin's work since 1904 and meeting Aristide Maillol in 1910, Torso eines jungen Weibes is a fine example of how Lehmbruck received stimuli from both artists. Formally less massive and voluptous than a Maillol, yet rounded and senusal and expressively more subtle than a Rodin, Torso eines jungen Weibes is intensely quiet and pensive, if not melancholic. Technically, there is another phenomenon to Lehmbruck's oeuvre which might have been inspired by Auguste Rodin. Similar to the latter, Lehmbruck continually explored elements of his sculptures by reducing them to fragments. Torso eines jungen Weibes originally derives from Grosse Stehende (1910), a two metre high standing figure which in turn inspired Kopf der grossen Stehenden/Gesenkter Frauenkopf of 1911. Divorced from the original context and wholeness of the completed standing figure, these works were transfromed into torsi, but also sculptures in their own right. Executed in cast stone, or Steinmasse, as he used to call it, Torso eines jungen Weibes is an example of the artist's preferred medium. The cast could later be painted in shades of grey, red, yellow or blue. Being coloured in a different tone each time, this technique, which Lehmbruck preferred to bronze, rendered each cast a unique work.
The nature of the casting of this piece is extremely interesting. The sculpture has an armature inside it and the way that the concrete sits on this armature would suggest that the construction of the work is more complex than a simple casting. This seems to be confirmed by the number of 'seams' running across the piece suggesting that the work may have been made in sections.
'Lehmbruck's work remains a torso...' are the opening words of Paul Westheim's monograph on Lehmbruck, published in 1919, the year of Lehmbruck's premature death, at the age of 38. With the artist's finest work concentrated into one decade - the years between 1910 and 1919 - Torso eines jungen Weibes stands at the beginning. From the moment it was executed, this work was famous, and stone casts of it were widely exhibited in major shows across Europe. In 1912, casts were shown at the Hagen Folkwang Museum, at the Berlin Secession, and in the celebrated Cologne Sonderbundaustellung. An example was also exhibited in 1914 at the Freie Secession and at the Berlin Freie Secession in 1919.
The present work was purchased by the famous art historian Kurt Badt. His groundbreaking essay, Die Plastik Wilhelm Lehmbrucks, which was published in the Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst, in 1920, continues to be a highly regarded reference document for Lehmbruck's work. Professor Schubert, the author of the catalogue raisonné considers the present work to be very close in quality to the one owned by the Nationalgalerie Berlin, whose cast was bought by Ludwig Justi in 1919. Other stone casts of the Torso eines jungen Weibes are now housed in the Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, the Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig, the Kunstmuseum, Basel and the Neue Staatsgalerie, Munich.
We are grateful to Professor Dr. D. Schubert (University of Heidelberg) for his assistance in researching the present work.