Ernst Barlach

Estate of the artist
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1948

Friedrich Schult, Ernst Barlach, Das Plastische Werk, Hamburg, 1959, no. 343, illustration of another cast p. 191 
Elisabeth Laur, Ernst Barlach, Das Plastische Werk, Güstrow, 2006, no. 432, illustration of another cast p. 208

Der singende Mann is one of the finest examples of Ernst Barlach's bronze sculptures. Executed with the utmost sensibility for form and content, the artist brilliantly renders the singing posture of the sculpture. The spirit with which Barlach has rendered the singer is highly evocative, capturing a musician at work. Sitting down in a relaxed pose, the singer seems to be practising his notes. Barlach saw the human form as a vessel holding the greatest secret, which he sought to uncover. Effectively, the artist left the human body wrapped in clothing. Only the clothed shape, the sensed rather than the obvious, was able to express the psychic twilight of the human figure as he felt it. Barlach achieves a unique transparency in the present bronze, in which the limbs are covered, but can occasionally be glimpsed through the severe clothing, thus illuminating the entire figure from within. In his dramatic attitude, the singer is filled with powerful expressive emotion, whereby Barlach brilliantly communicates the liberating sensation to the viewer.

The present cast was acquired directly from the artist's estate and was produced immediately after the artist's death. It is one of the earliest casts stamped with H. NOACK BERLIN instead of H. NOACK BERLIN FRIEDENAU.