Wilhelm Lehmbruck

Doris Schnitzler, Cologne (probably acquired from the artist by 1918)
Thence by descent to the present owners

Dietrich Schubert, Die Kunst Lehmbrucks, Worms, 1990, pl. IV, colour illustrations of other casts p. 128
Margarita C. Lahusen, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Gemälde und grossformatige Zeichnungen, Munich, 1997, no. 99, illustration of another cast p. 96

Apart from some light surface dirt, this work is in very good condition.
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Doris Schnitzler, the first owner of the present work, was a patron of the arts of her time. She was a passionate supporter of young musicians, poets and artists, among them Wilhelm Lehmbruck who she knew and supported until his untimely death in 1919.

Conceived in Paris in 1910-11, Kleine Sinnende, brilliantly defines the attenuation and elongation characteristic of the artist's sculptural style. The sensitive use of the features of the terracotta cast creates a deep unity of the contents and the moulding. The nude figure with her graceful posture and elegantly elongated neck supporting her head slightly tilted to one side conveys a sense of innocence and pensivity whilst emanating a calm sensuality.

A cast of Kleine Sinnende was exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1911. The work relates to Lehmbruck's important Grosse Stehende, also conceived in 1910-11, which was exhibited in the famous 1913 Armory Show in New York. In addition to the present cast there are four recorded lifetime casts, one of them being in the Detroit Institute of Arts (see: Dietrich Schubert, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Catalogue Raisonné der Skulpturen, 1898-1919, Worms, 2001, p. 211).

The artist's finest work was concentrated into one decade - the years between 1910 and the artist's untimely death in 1919. As evident in the present work, Lehmbruck achieves a unification of form whereby the artist has internalised his object of representation. He searches for the grand form whereby his rendition of forms does not loose itself in the naturalism of detail. Exact representation plays a secondary part in this process.

Lehmbruck moved to Paris in 1910, where he lived at 105, rue de Vaugirard. There he frequented the Café du Dôme, where he met sculptors such as Brancusi, Archipenko and Modigliani and was also introduced to the process of stone-casting, a technique already practised by Brancusi at the time. With its diversity of stimulation and its atmosphere pulsating with ever new artistic ideals, Paris was the ideal arena for Lehmbruck to develop his style.

Having been an admirer of Rodin's work since 1904 and having met Aristide Maillol in 1910, Kleine Sinnende is a fine example of how Lehmbruck was inspired by both artists. Dietrich Schubert commented on Lehmbruck's fascination with Maillol: 'Like Maillol, Lehmbruck became fascinated with the introvert qualities of a figure whereby he concentrated on portraying his models in a composed, sensual state, being at one with their spiritual centre' (Dietrich Schubert, Die Kunst Lehmbrucks, Worms, 1990, p. 118, translated from German). Formally less voluptuous than a Maillol and expressively more delicate than a Rodin, Kleine Sinnende typifies the elegance of Lehmbruck's art at his peak.