Details

Not with Berger.

With an expert opinion by Dr Ursel Berger, Berlin, dated 23 February 2018 (copy).

Literature:

The Beethoven Monument by Georg Kolbe, Galerie Paul Cassirer, Berlin 1928, cat. no. 11 (plaster model), no illustration;

Binding, Rudolf G., Vom Leben der Plastik, Inhalt und Schönheit des Werkes von Georg Kolbe, Berlin 1933, with b/w illus. p. 35;

Grau, Richard, Georg Kolbe. Bildwerke vom Künstler ausgewählt, Insel-Bücherei no. 422, Leipzig n.d. (ca. 1940), no. 15, with b/w illus.

Provenance:

Gallery Vömel Düsseldorf;

Paul Girardet Collection, Düsseldorf, in family ownership until 2011;

Bolland & Marotz, Bremen 26 March 2011, lot 507A;

Ulrich Gronert Kunsthandel, Berlin;

Private collection, Berlin;

Private property, Northern Germany.

Description

– Expressive portrait of the artist’s singing daughter

– Unique piece cast during his lifetime

– Inspiration for the famous Beethoven monument in Frankfurt/Main

In 1901, Georg Kolbe met the Dutch singing student Benjamine van der Meer de Walcheren under Cosima Wagner in Bayreuth. They married in Brussels at the beginning of 1902 and their daughter Leonore, called Nux, was born in November. Kolbe repeatedly painted portraits of his wife and daughter. In 1928, he depicted Nux, who was taking singing lessons as a young woman, in this bronze as “Singing”. This is documented by a photograph of the work from the artist’s estate, which is inscribed on the back with the title “Singing Nux” by Margit Schwartzkopff, Kolbe’s photographer and secretary.

In her expertise, Dr Ursel Berger links the “Singing Woman” with the Beethoven monument designed in 1927, in which Kolbe flanks the composer’s striking symbolic figure with two female genii. These two idealised figures – one musing, the other calling – were inspired by his wife and daughter and have similar facial features. The four metre high Beethoven monument was not cast until after Georg Kolbe’s death and today stands in the Taunusanlagen in Frankfurt/Main. As far as we know today, the bronze head of the “Singing Nux” is unique.