3664 - Max Kruse, “The Messenger of Victory from Marathon”

Max Kruse, “The Messenger of Victory from Marathon” c. 1930, signed, foundry mark: Aktien-Gesellschaft formerly H. Gladenbeck & Sohn, titled on the front “Nenikhkamen (We have triumphed)”, dark-patinated bronze, a naked youth arriving at the finish line, holding a laurel branch aloft with his right arm in a pose that is both triumphant and exhausted, on a three-tiered plinth, mounted on a flat rectangular marble base, the branch is probably not quite complete; the plinth has a very minor chip at the corner; otherwise well preserved; height of bronze 35 cm, total height 39 cm. Artist’s biography: German sculptor (1854, Berlin - 1942, Bad Kösen); studied from 1877 to 1879 at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin under Fritz Schaper and Albert Wolff; in 1881 he achieved his first success at the Academy Exhibition with the statue of the ‘Messenger of Marathon’ and was awarded the Rome Prize, In 1907 he was appointed professor; in 1908 he joined the Berlin Secession, serving as its second chairman until 1910; married to the doll designer Käthe Kruse; source: Thieme-Becker/Vollmer.