237 - Gerhard Marcks

Gerhard Marcks Portrait Konrad Adenauer 1955 Bronze. Height 42.4 cm. Artist's mark to left of the collar, and foundry mark “RICH. BARTH BLN. MARIENDORF” verso. There are 5 casts of the first state and 5 casts of the second; each not numbered. - Slight yellowish, light patina. Rudloff 636, second state, there with height 41 cm; Gerhard Marcks Werktagebuch Gips/Bronze 429 Provenance Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft; loan to Museum Ludwig Cologne (since its acquisition from the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne), inv. no. SK 158 Exhibitions Cf. i.a. Leverkusen 1956 (Westdeutscher Künstlerbund), Malerei und Plastik in Westdeutschland, cat. no. 50 (with ill.); Baden-Baden 1956 (Kunsthalle), Ars viva, cat. no. 10 (with ill.); Basel 1956 (Kunsthalle), Deutsche und Schweizer Bildhauerkunst der letzten 50 Jahre, cat. no. 66; Cologne 1957 (Kunstverein), Gerhard Marcks. Skulpturen der Jahre 1947-1957, cat. no. 36; Bremen 1969 (Kunsthalle), Gerhard Marcks. Bildnisse und Landschaften, cat. no. 15; Cologne 1969 (Kunstverein), Gerhard Marcks. Werke der Kölner Jahre 1950-1969, cat. no. 25 Literature Bildwerke seit 1800, Sammlungskatalog des Wallraff-Richartz-Museum, Cologne 1965, p. 58 with ill. p. 197 The commission to create a portrait to mark Konrad Adenauer’s 80th birthday was arranged for Marcks by Prof. Gustav Stein, a member of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie; sketches were produced during meetings and negotiations and from photographs. Adenauer sat for Marcks specifically for the portrait on only one occasion.