(Waldheim/Sachsen 1877–1947 Berlin)
Bathing Girl, conceived in 1926, monogrammed GK on the base, bronze with brown patina, with foundry stamp H. Noack Berlin Friedenau, cast in bronze in a known edition of at least 2, hight 46,5 cm, (PP)

The authenticity of the work has been confirmed by Dr. Ursel Berger, former director of the Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin.

Provenance:
Buchholz Gallery, New York (1939) (label on the base)
Phylis and Erwin Kalla (1925-2005) Collection, USA
their estate with Concept Art Gallery, USA
Private collection, USA (2013)

Exhibited:
San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Art, Modern German Sculpture, 1939 (label on the base)
An example of this bronze was probably first shown at the Venice Art Biennale in 1926.

Literature:
Ursel Berger, Georg Kolbe - Leben und Werk (Life and Work), with the catalog of the Kolbe-sculptures in the Georg-Kolbe-Museum, second edition, Berlin 1990, no. 95, page 297 (ill. of another cast)
An example of this work is included in the collection of the Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin.

Georg Kolbe (1877–1947) was the most successful German sculptor of the first half of the twentieth century. His expressive sculptures dating from the nineteen teens and twenties reflect the spirit of the times in the European art metropolis Berlin, conveying a vivid image of the era they were produced in. Their close ties to now iconic examples of modern architecture is particularly enlightening for an understanding of their historical significance. Mies van der Rohe, for example, placed Kolbe’s sculpture ‘Morning,’ a female nude with arms outstretched upwards, in the reflecting pool of his Barcelona Pavilion built on the occasion of the 1929 World Exposition. Georg Kolbe‘s main theme was the autonomous nude figure, with which his generation distanced itself from the commissioned sculpture of the 19th century. [...] Kolbe primarily created female figures, while male figures increasingly appeared only after the late 1920s. His sculptures, which eschew narrative or allegorical content, shed light on the perceptions and ideals regarding the human figure that were contemporary at the time.
© Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin