7096 - Seiwert, Franz Wilhelm

Seiwert, Franz Wilhelm Design for a Tombstone Bronze with a golden-brown patina. 1929/1931. 22.3 x 13.6 x 4.8 cm. Signed “F. W. SEIWERT” on the right side of the plinth on the reverse, and dated on the left. Bohnen 397. The “Design for a Tombstone” is influenced by Constantin Brancusi’s famous sculpture “The Kiss,” whose motif Seiwert translates into his own, strictly reduced formal language. After his mother’s death, Seiwert designed the gravestone for his parents at Cologne’s Nordfriedhof in 1929. The artist had suffered from poor health since childhood due to the severe consequences of X-ray treatment and died in 1933 at the age of only 39, before his father. Thus, the design originally intended for his parents took on an unexpectedly personal significance. Seiwert himself was buried next to his mother beneath the tomb he had created. Provenance: Private collection, Berlin - Please request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is usually not listed in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.