Lot 11 | Ernst Barlach | Der singende Mann

The most complete German artist
Ernst Barlach could be described as the most complete German artist of the classical modern era. His work consists not only of his unique and immensely popular sculptures; he was also a brilliant draughtsman and illustrator, designed ceramics and was highly successful as a writer and playwright. Ernst Barlach grew up in northern Germany as the son of a country doctor. He completed a classical education as a visual artist, first at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule (General Trade School) in Hamburg, then at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts from 1891 onwards. To complete his education, Ernst Barlach went to Paris for a year in 1895 and enrolled at the Académie Julian. After his return, the artist received public commissions in the following years, but earned his living mainly as an illustrator, craftsman and drawing teacher. In 1905, Barlach moved to Berlin, but artistic doubts led him into a deep depressive crisis. A two-month trip to Russia in 1906 provided the inspiration he had been longing for. Here, Ernst Barlach found a new formal language and a very reduced, simple image of humanity. The sculptor made his breakthrough the following year when he exhibited two of his new sculptures at the Berlin Secession exhibition. For the first time, he was able to sell a work as an independent artist. Paul Cassirer became aware of Ernst Barlach and signed him in 1908. In exchange for a monthly salary, Berlin's most influential art dealer received the exclusive marketing rights to his works. This gave the artist financial security.

Ernst Barlach's simple and expressive images of people capture the spirit of the times. His works, initially executed predominantly in wood, are appreciated by collectors and critics. He is elected to the board of the Berlin Secession and is now part of the German avant-garde. In 1910, Ernst Barlach withdraws from the busy life in Berlin and retreats to Güstrow in Mecklenburg. Here he works intensively and exhaustively as a sculptor, graphic artist and writer over the coming years. In 1924, Ernst Barlach receives the Kleist Prize for his literary work, as did literary greats such as Robert Musil, Bertolt Brecht and Anna Seghers before and after him. After the death of Paul Cassirer in 1926, Barlach works with the gallery owner Alfred Flechtheim. On the occasion of his 60th birthday in 1930, the sculptor was honoured with exhibitions in several German museums and in the Flechtheim Gallery. At the same time, right-wing nationalist attacks against his work increased. Many of his works, now branded as "degenerate", survived the Nazi era with the help of his former assistant Bernhard Böhmer. Ernst Barlach died in Rostock in 1938.

"Der singende Mann" (The Singing Man) – an iconic sculpture of the 20th century
Ernst Barlach’s sculptures are among the most popular plastic artworks of the 20th century, and "Der singende Mann" is probably the most prominent of all his works in the collective artistic consciousness. A young man sits barefoot on the ground in a long robe. With his arms outstretched, he embraces his raised right leg, while his left leg is bent, lying flat on the ground and providing lateral support for the figure. Three aspects of simultaneity make this sculpture so moving: the closed but also tense triangular composition of the posture, the self-forgetful inwardness of the singer with his eyes closed, and the song imagined by the viewer, which, supported by the lines of the robe, sets the sculpture in a rocking motion – again imagined.
This example of the "Singing Man" is a special rarity. It is the very first cast, made in Berlin-Friedenau by the H. Noack company in 1930. "They differ from the subsequent casts in that they have “more modelling” on their surface" (Hans Barlach, quoted from an expert opinion dated 17 April 1990). The gallery owner Alfred Flechtheim was able to convince Ernst Barlach to have a small edition of 10 copies of the sculpture cast. As these first copies sold quickly, six more casts were made during Ernst Barlach's lifetime. These first casts are numbered in the form of a fraction, i.e. with a horizontal crossbar, as is the case with the present copy. Numbered lifetime casts of this iconic sculpture are extremely rare on the market. Elisabeth Laur's catalogue raisonné lists only one numbered work in private ownership. The artist has given this first copy of the cast series a wonderfully dark patina with reddish iridescence.
Alexandra Bresges-Jung