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Description: der sammler (the collector) inscribed E. Barlach and stamped with the foundry mark H. Noack Berlin, Friedenau and numbered 3/10 bronze height: 34cm., 13Iin. Provenance: Mr. Ladisch, Dusseldorf (thence by descent to the family of the present owner circa 1950) Literature: Ernst Barlach, Galerie Flechtheim, Berlin and Dusseldorf, 1930, no. 7, illustration of another cast Ernst Barlach, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, 1931, no. 2, illustration of another cast Kunst und Kunstler, Berlin, vol. XXIX, 1930-31, p. 102, illustration of another cast Carl Dietrich Carls, Ernst Barlach. Das plastische, graphische und dichterische Werk, Berlin, 1934, p. 38, illustration of another cast Friedrich Schult, Ernst Barlach. Werkverzeichnis: Das Plastische Werk, Hamburg, 1960, vol. I, p. 103, no. 156, illustration of another cast Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin, Ernst Barlach. Einundfunfzig Bronzen, Berlin, 1981, p. 18, no. 13, illustration of another cast Anita Beloubek-Hammer, Ernst Barlach. Plastische Meisterwerke, Leipzig, 1996, p. 62, illustration in colour of another cast The present work was cast after the original plaster model executed by the artist in 1913 (Schult, op.cit. no. 155). A first sketch, which Barlach executed in Florence during his stay at the Villa Romana in 1909 (Friedrich Schult, Ernst Barlach. Werkverzeichnis: Werkkatalog der Zeichnungen, Hamburg, 1971, vol. III, no. 637), shows the strong influence of Daumier on the artist's drawings at this time. In the later bronze sculpture Barlach transformed the loose handling of the pen and ink drawing into a more static, calmer composition exuding an air of calm contemplation of the collector viewing his objects. In 1930 Galerie Flechtheim in Dusseldorf announced a series of ten casts of this sculpture to be cast by the Noack foundry in Berlin. However, only a few casts were executed: the first is now in the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart and the third is the present composition, which was delivered to Galerie Flechtheim on 12th November 1930 from the Noack foundry.