Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867-1945)
Die Klage/A Posthumous Casting
Signed "KOLLWITZ" within the cast along left side, foundry stamped "ROMAN BRONZE WORKS INC N.Y." and incised "No3-61" on the base.
Bronze with dark brown patina, 10 5/8 x 10 3/8 x 4 in. (27.0 x 26.4 x 10.0 cm).
Condition: Scattered small spots of oxidation, uneven patina, two small nicks to u.l. side, dust and dirt to the interstices.
Provenance: Purchased at an estate sale in Brookline, Massachusetts, c. 2000, by the current private collector.
N.B. Jeanne L. Wasserman, Honorary Curator of 19th- and 20th-Century Sculpture at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, from 1969-c. 1987, commissioned the American foundry Roman Bronze Works to cast Die Klage in 1961 in a bronze edition of three, after one of two original plaster casts purchased from Hyman Swetzoff of Swetzoff Gallery, Boston, in December 1958. (1)
The work will be included as a posthumous casting in the online catalogue raisonné of Kollwitz's sculpture prepared by Annette Seeler, Käthe Kollwitz: Die Plastik, Werkverzeichnis Onlinekatalog (https://www.kollwitz.de/werkverzeichnis-plastik), and we wish to thank Dr. Seeler for her kind assistance.
1. Roman Bronze Works Archive, Client Cards, Mrs. Max Wasserman Client Card, Amon Carter Museum of American Art Archives, Fort Worth, Texas.
Estimate $5,000-7,000
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