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Hans HardersGoethe / - Goethe's Will -c 1935
c 1935
$1,152.53
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€960
€1,20020% Off
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CA$1,956.2120% Off
A$1,754.31
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NOK 11,592.49
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About the Item
Hans Harders (1875 Mörel - 1955 Berlin), Goethe (bookend). Patinated brass mounted on a wooden base, 15 x 12 x 6 cm (depiction), 17 x 14.5 x 7 cm (with base), signed in the cast "HARDERS", um 1935.
- Nose tip somewhat rubbed, otherwise in very good condition
- Goethe's Will -
Hans Harder's Goethe joins the still largely unwritten art history of the bookend. With the emergence of bourgeois libraries, this new genre of art developed in the 19th century. The bookend fulfills its potential as a work of art when it refers to the book, not only in formal terms, but also as a manifestation of the spiritual. In this sense, Hans Harder's Goethe is a major work of the then young but flourishing art genre.
We see a portrait bust of Goethe in which the extremely strikingly carved features lend the face of the poet-prince something monumental. The powerful nose juts forward in a straight line, the chin also protrudes, the lips are slightly pressed together, the eyes are widened in a visionary manner, while the wrinkles on the high forehead testify to somber thoughts as well as the unwavering will to confront himself with the destiny he sees before him.
On the background panel that forms the surface of the bookend, Mephistopheles is depicted in semi-relief on the left and Faust on the right, as if they had stepped out of Goethe's head. There is something mischievous about Mephistopheles, who moves through the world with an elegant, seductive stride reminiscent of a Morris dancer. Faust, on the other hand, is portrayed as a prophet who has left the knowledge of the world behind him and, like Gothe, begins to see through words. A reflection on the inadequacy of book knowledge, as Faust formulates it in his famous monologue:
I've studied now Philosophy
And Jurisprudence, Medicine,--
And even, alas! Theology,--
From end to end, with labor keen;
And here, poor fool! with all my lore
I stand, no wiser than before.
Mere reading, as the monologue can be applied to the library represented by the bookend, leads only to a great deal of knowledge, but to nothing of substance. Accordingly, Friedrich Nietzsche, in the essay Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben (1874), which is part of his Unzeitgemäße Betrachtungen (1874), distinguishes between a monumental, an antiquarian, and a critical type of history. The antiquarian view having a merely affirmative character, which regards the past, or rather the accumulated written material, as a value in itself. While the antiquarian perspective also has its justification in Unzeitgemäße Betrachtungen, in Fröhliche Wissenschaft (1887), the monumental-heroic is the only world view that allows man to transcend himself. "What is heroic?" - At the same time," says Nietzsche, "to go towards one's highest suffering and one's highest hope.
It is precisely in this late Nietzschean intensification that Harders has shaped the expressive content of Goethe's face. Goethe becomes the quintessential "Faustian" who, through heroic determination, overcomes his inner turmoil and thus penetrates to the true meaning of life, which cannot be revealed through much reading. The quest for a new transcendence unites Harder's work with the creations of Fidus. And the power to overcome oneself is also nourished by the power of the written word, which is kept in the library. The books that really matter are heroic creations, born of this very struggle, as Goethe himself created them.
About the artist
Hans Harder's artistic talent was already evident as a child, when he made animal figures out of clay. His parents, farmers from Mörel, encouraged their son's talent and enabled him to study at the art academies in Berlin and Dresden. Following his artistic roots as a sculptor, he became a sculptor and medalist. Based in Berlin, his bronze works were produced by the Rosenthal & Maeder foundry and later by Preiss & Kassler. From the 1920s he also created models for the porcelain manufacturers Fraureuth and Hutschenreuther.
GERMAN VERSION
Hans Harders (1875 Mörel - 1955 Berlin), Goethe (Buchstütze). Patinierter Gelbguss auf Holzsockel montiert, 15 x 12 x 6 cm (Darstellung), 17 x 14,5 x 7 cm (mit Postament) im Guss mit „HARDERS“ signiert.
- Nasenspitze etwas berieben, sonst in sehr gutem Zustand
- Goethes Willen -
Hans Harders Goethe reiht sich in die noch weitgehend ungeschriebene Kunstgeschichte der Buchstütze ein. Mit dem Aufkommen der bürgerlichen Bibliotheken entwickelte sich im 19. Jahrhundert diese neue Kunstgattung. Die Buchstützte schöpft ihr Potenzial als Kunstwerk aus, wenn sie sich auf das Buch bezieht und dies nicht allein in formaler Hinsicht, sondern auf das Buch als Manifestation des Geistigen. In diesem Sinne steht mit Hans Harders Goethe ein Hauptwerk der damals noch jungen, aber äußerst florierenden Kunstgattung vor Augen.
Wir sehen eine Porträtbüste Goethes, bei der die äußerst markant herausgearbeiteten Züge dem Antlitz des Dichterfürsten etwas Monumentales verleihen. Die mächtige Nase stößt gradlinig nach vorne und auch das Kinn wölbt sich vor, die Lippen sind leicht aufeinandergepresst, die Augen seherisch geweitet, während die Falten der hohen Stirn ebenso von düsteren Gedanken zeugen wie vom unumstößlichen Willen, dem geschauten Schicksal gerecht zu werden.
Auf der die Fläche der Buchstütze bildenden Hintergrundplatte sind im Halbrelief links Mephistopheles und rechts Faust dargestellt, als ob sie Goethes Kopf entstiegen wären. Mephistopheles weist etwas spitzbübisch Durchtriebenes auf und bewegt sich in einem an Moriskentänzer gemahnenden elegant-verführerischen Schritt durch die Welt, um sie sich Untertan zu machen. Faust hingegen ist wie ein Prophet dargestellt, der das Wissen der Welt hinter sich gelassen hat und – wie Gothe – durch die Worte zu sehen beginnt. Eine Reflexion über das ungenügende Buchwissen, wie es Faust in seinem berühmten Monolog formuliert:
Habe nun, ach! Philosophie,
Juristerei und Medizin,
Und leider auch Theologie
Durchaus studiert, mit heißem Bemühn.
Da steh ich nun, ich armer Tor!
Und bin so klug als wie zuvor.
Das bloße Lesen, so lassen sich die Worte auf die von der Buchstützte repräsentierte Bibliothek beziehen, führt einzig zu Vielwisserei aber zu nichts Substanziellen. Dementsprechend unterscheidet Friedrich Nietzsche in der zu seinen Unzeitgemäßen Betrachtungen gehörenden Abhandlung Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben (1874) eine monumentalische, eine antiquarische und eine kritische Art der Historie, wobei die antiquarische Betrachtung einen bloß affirmativen Charakter hat, der das Vergangene, beziehungswiese das angesammelte Geschriebene als einen Wert per se betrachtet. Während in den Unzeitgemäßen Betrachtungen auch die antiquarische Perspektive ihre Berechtigung hat, ist in der ergänzten Fröhlichen Wissenschaft (1887) das Monumental-Heroische die einzig den Menschen über sich selbst hinauswachsen lassende Weltsicht. „Was macht heroisch?" – Zugleich“, so Nietzsche „seinem höchsten Leide und seiner höchsten Hoffnung entgegengehn.“
In eben dieser spätnietzscheanischen Zuspitzung hat Harders den Ausdrucksgehalt von Goethes Antlitz gestaltet. Goethe wird zum ‚Faustischen Menschen‘ schlechthin, der seine innerliche Zerrissenheit durch heroische Entschlossenheit überwindet und damit zum eigentlichen Sinn des Lebens vordringt, den die Vielleserei nicht zu eröffnen vermag. Der Aufbruch zu einer neuen Transzendenz verbindet Harders Werk mit den Schöpfungen von Fidus. Und die Kraft zur Selbstüberwindung speist sich auch aus der Kraft des in der Bibliothek verwahrten geschriebenen Wortes. Die tatsächlich relevanten Bücher sind aus eben jenem Kampf hervorgegangene heroische Schöpfungen, wie sie Goethe selbst geschaffen hat.
zum Künstler
Bereits als Kind zeigte sich Hans Harders künstlerisches Talent, indem er aus Lehm Tierfiguren formte. Die Eltern – Bauern aus Mörel – förderten die Begabung ihres Sohnes und ermöglichten ihm ein Studium an der Berliner und der Dresdener Kunstakademie. Seinen künstlerischen Wurzeln als Plastiker folgend, wurde er Bildhauer und Medailleur. In Berlin ansässig, führten die Bildgießereien Rosenthal & Maeder und später Preiss & Kassler seine Werke aus. Ab den 1920er Jahren schuf Harders zudem Modelle für die Porzellanmanufakturen Fraureuth und Hutschenreuther.

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