Strollers

Details

Laur 189.

Provenance:

Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Description

– Ernst Barlach is one of the most important sculptors of the first half of the 20th century

– Dynamic and expressive depiction of a walker dishevelled by the wind

– Created during Barlach’s happy years in Güstrow

In 1910, Barlach settled in Güstrow. At this time, he managed to conclude a contract with Paul Cassirer, which secured his financial situation. This is another reason why the early years of his Güstrow period, during which he also created the sculpture of the “Stroller”, were among the happiest of his life.

Barlach depicts a man striding with his legs apart, wrapped in a heavy, flowing cloak. His hands clasped behind his back, his gaze is directed into an indeterminate distance. Instead of a static pose, the figure is characterised by a movement that is only momentarily still, conveying a certain timelessness. And despite the ingenious indirect depiction of the lively wind, the “Stroller” also radiates a clear calm that characterises so many of Barlach’s figures.

His diary entry of 9 November 1916, written four years later, shows just how important the “Spaziergänger” was to Barlach: “I thought, how am I so, too critically arrogant, proving and complaining in everything I do? Only in the ‘Sleeping Couple’ and the ‘Walker’, for example, is there something of an all too hourly temporality, a sense of the world, a hanging in the great, mere existence without a division of time.”

In 1912, the stroller motif was initially created as an oak sculpture and as a plaster model (see Laur 188 and 190). It was not until 1938 that the figure was cast in bronze, with two copies being completed during the artist’s lifetime and 15 copies following posthumously. In addition, three further copies are documented as zinc casts from 1940. One of the three works by Ernst Barlach exhibited at documenta 1 in Kassel in 1955 is a copy of the “Stroller”.