KOLBE, GEORG
1877 Waldheim/Saxony - 1947 Berlin

Title: Wolkenfahrt, Skizze.
Date: 1924 (draft).
Technique: Bronze, patinated light brown.
Measurement: 30,5 x 15 x 17cm.
Notation: Monogrammed on the stone rear lower right: GK (artist's signet).
Foundry Mark: Foundry mark on the stone rear lower left: H. NOACK BERLIN FRIEDENAU. Frame/Pedestal: Plinth: 12 x 16,5 x 15cm (total size: 42,5 x 16,5 x 17cm).


This bronze is a small version of the bronze "Wolkenfahrt" (1924/25). Three casts of this small version are known.

There is an expert opinion on this work by Dr Ursel Berger, Berlin, dated 22.10.2024. According to Dr Berger, this bronze is a lifetime cast, probably from before 1928.

The work is listed on the Kolbe Museum website under cat. no. W 24.019. (www.sammlung.georg-kolbe-museum.de)

Provenance:
- L. Specht-Büchtling Collection (according to the consignor directly from the artist in 1928)
- Private collection Baden-Württemberg

Literature:
- Cf. Berger, Ursel: Georg Kolbe - Life and Work. With the catalogue of Kolbe plastics in the Georg-Kolbe-Museum, Berlin 1990, cat. no. 73, ill.

- Impressive example of Kolbe's reduced formal language from the time of his artistic breakthrough
- Kolbe's treatment of the tragic lovers Paolo and Francesca from Dante's Divine Comedy
- Flowing, dynamic composition that depicts the physical and emotional bond between the sitters
- In private ownership for almost 100 years.