3670 - Otto Schmidt-Hofer, Ball Player

Otto Schmidt-Hofer, Ball Player Early 20th century, signed ‘Schmidt-Hofer’ on the reverse of the plinth, Bronze with a dark patina and green-brown smudges; male half-nude figure wearing a loincloth, balancing a ball on his raised, bent arm; set on a small square plinth, mounted on a multi-part marble pedestal, which has minor damage; the ball is loose, H bronze 30.5 cm, total height 40.5 cm. Artist’s details: German sculptor (1873, Berlin - 1925, ibid.), studied in Berlin at the Royal Academy of Arts and at the Training Institute of the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts, had close ties to the Hohenzollern court, Member of the Reich Economic Association of Visual Artists; lived in Paris, later in Berlin; died in poverty; created statuettes of heroes, sportsmen and warriors; achieved great renown even before the First World War and exhibited in almost all the leading galleries in Europe. Source: Internet.