From 1930-37 the German sculptor Gerhard Marcks (1889-1981) created a number of bronzes depicting young women, either seated or squatting. After he was classed as a degenerate artist by the Nazis who confiscated many of his works and prevented him from exhibiting, his artistic output was understandably much reduced.
He continued to produce graphic art and in 1945 he executed a woodcut of a seated woman that he entitled Die Hoffnung (Hope). This motif was executed as a bronze in 1950, now called Soldanelle, which - like almost all of Marcks’ works - was cast by the foundry Barth in Rinteln.
The figure offered in Munich on September 20, which was numbered VII, attracted bids from several collectors on the phone, who pushed the price from €10,000 to €16,000 (£13,915).
