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ONLINECOLLECTION

Head of a Youth / Bust of Ascending Youth, undated

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Bronze
47×46×25 cm

Artists

  • Wilhelm Lehmbruck

    (Meiderich near Duisburg 1881–1919 Berlin)

Currently on display at OG3
The youth is inclining his head in an earnest and reserved manner. His angular face bears a thoughtful, calm expression. The lean and elongated neck gives the bust a delicate, fragile air. The beholder cannot help but wonder about the dark thoughts that are tormenting the youth. The bust is an autonomous work associated with the sculpture Ascending Youth, created by the German sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881–1919) in the years 1913/14. This sculpture is over two meters high and represents a monumental ascending figure, gazing downwards. While the full figure is striking for its dramatic staging in the surrounding space and conveys an immediate experience of tension between two opposing poles, the bust of the youth represents the compression of his momentary psychological expression. The groundbreaking Expressionist sculpture shows a concept of humanity that is paralleled in the works of Egon Schiele (1890–1918). That was presumably why the German art collector Karl Ernst Osthaus exhibited works by both artists simultaneously in Hagen in 1912.

Object data

Artist/author
  • Wilhelm Lehmbruck
Title
Head of a Youth / Bust of Ascending Youth
Date
undated
Art movement
Expressionism
Category
Sculpture
Material​/technique
Bronze
Dimensions
47×46×25 cm
Credit line of the permanent loan
Lehmbruck-Estate
Selection of Reference works
  • Wilhelm Lehmbruck. Retrospektive, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Köln 2016 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 8.04.2016-8.07.2016).
  • Dietrich Schubert: Wilhelm Lehmbruck. Catalogue raisonné der Skulpturen (1891-1919), Worms 2001.
Keywords

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

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