Walk in the Shadow

1922

Ernst Barlach

Associated Names
Ernst Barlach

Artist, German, 1870 - 1938

The image features a sketch showing the side profile of a human figure in motion. The entire body of the person is visible, depicted with abstract and sketchy details. The person's posture is forward-leaning, with arms outstretched in front of them. The facial features are minimally detailed with simplified lines, and the hair is short with curved lines. The clothing is abstractly represented with flowy lines, suggesting a loose garment. The background has horizontal and vertical hatches suggesting motion, and the space around the figure is filled with dynamic lines. There are no visible jewelry or objects. The sketch is in a monochrome palette, and in the bottom right, there is a signature attributed to Barlach.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    lithograph on handmade paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Accession Number

    1950.17.299

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Schult 1958, no. 193


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Claude Schaefer [1913-2010], Montevideo, Uruguay; sold 1950 to Lessing J. Rosenwald; [1] gift 1950/1951 to the National Gallery of Art.
[1] In Recollections of a Collector, 1976, p. 56-57, Rosenwald described being approached by a young man in South America who offered to sell his father’s collection of prints that he had brought with him from Germany. Rosenwald gives the year as 1951, but his appointment books confirm that it was actually 1950 - he left for Buenos Aires on 9 February 1950 and returned on 20 March 1950 (Library of Congress, Rosenwald Papers, Box 75). Rosenwald writes that he bought the entire collection of some 1100 prints and drawings, but as they had already been scheduled to be sent to Europe they came to the United States via Antwerp, arriving in the US in late April 1950. Rosenwald decided to keep about a quarter of the collection, destined for the National Gallery of Art, and donate the remainder to other institutions. The inventory log of Alverthorpe indicates that just over 300 works were accessioned there in May of 1950, inventory numbers 50.260-50.530, acquired from Claude Schaefer (Gallery Archives, National Gallery of Art, RG 45A1, Rosenwald Papers, Box 41).

Associated Names

Bibliography

1958

  • Schult, Friedrich. Ernst Barlach, das graphische Werke. Hamburg: Dr. Ernst Hauswedell & Co., 1958.

Wikidata ID

Q65222912

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