Gerhard Marcks Lot n° 67

Gerhard Marcks Alcina II 1934 Bronze sculpture. Height 106,3 cm. On the right side at the hem of the skirt the artist's sign and at the bottom back the foundry stamp "H.NOACK BERLIN". - With beautiful dark brown, partly greenish patina. Rudloff 291; Gerhard Marcks work diary plaster/bronze 139 Provenance Gallery Hoffmann, Hamburg; Private collection Lower Saxony Literature Walter Passarge, Gerhard Marcks, in: Der Standpunkt, 1947. issue 6/7, p. 25; Adolf Rieth, Gerhard Marcks, Recklinghausen 1959, p. 13; Othmar Metzger, Zu den Bildwerken von Gerhard Marcks, in: Gerhard Marcks, Ausst. Cat. Wallraf Richartz-Museum, Cologne 1964, p. 12 f.; Günter Busch, Der Bildhauer Gerhard Marcks, in: Universitas, 1965, Jg. 20, fig. p. 831; Gerhard Marcks und die Antike, with texts by Rudolf Blaum, Martina Rudloff u. a., Bremen 1993, p. 62. The sculpture "Alcina II" by Gerhard Marcks, which is extremely rare in the art trade, was created in 1934 in two slightly different versions. While in the first version the figure wears her hair tied up and a straight falling dress, "Alcina II" shows open hair and a dress with a thoroughly modeled and wrinkled skirt. With regard to the conception of the figure with standing and playing leg, upright posture and withdrawn expression, it documents the examination of Greek sculpture. This is no coincidence, as Marcks was fascinated by Greek culture throughout his life and first traveled to Greece in 1928 with the archaeologist Herbert Koch (1880-1960). The impressions he gathered there provided him with decisive impulses for his figurative work for a long time. Alcina II" also bears witness to the influence of the classical Greek conception of the figure through its austere style. Marcks used the artist Trude Jalowetz (1910-1976) as a model for the head of the figure. She was a student in the weaving class at the Burg Giebichenstein School of Applied Arts, where Marcks was deputy director. When she and her husband were forced to emigrate because of their Jewish background, Marcks visited them in Putten, Holland, in 1934. The preparatory model study dated 1934 (Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt) was probably also made there.