Statuette of Nelly Herz with her daughter Marta Fritz Klimsch

• The bronze is the only double portrait in Fritz Klimsch’s extensive sculptural oeuvre • A representative yet personal depiction of mother and daughter • The bronze remained in the family’s possession until the 1970s The sculptor Fritz Klimsch came from a Frankfurt family with a long artistic tradition; his father, grandfather and both older brothers were also active as artists. He received drawing lessons and intensive artistic encouragement from an early age, and at the age of 16 he began his training in the drawing and modelling classes at the Berlin University of the Arts. In the years that followed, journeys to Italy and Greece shaped his artistic style; in Paris, he became acquainted with the works of Rodin. Together with Max Liebermann and Walter Leistikow, Fritz Klimsch founded the Berlin Secession in 1898, and his works were regularly featured in its exhibitions. He became a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1912; from 1921 to 1935, he served as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and head of the master’s studio. In 1960, Fritz Klimsch was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Klimsch enjoyed great success with portraits of prominent figures from cultural and political life, such as Paul von Hindenburg, Carl Duisberg, Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt, Lovis Corinth and Ludwig Thoma. In addition, he received numerous commissions for monuments and memorials, including those for Rudolf Virchow, Alois Alzheimer and Theo von Brockhusen. Today, Klimsch is known above all for his characteristic female nudes, which are in high demand on the art market. Klimsch received several commissions from the Frankfurt merchant family of Adolf and Martha Gans. For instance, he portrayed Martha in a marble relief, as well as her adult daughter Nelly in a plaster bust and a marble bust (see the artist’s handwritten catalogue of portraits, nos. 10, 11 and 35; the current whereabouts of each are unknown). Klimsch exhibited this marble bust of Nelly in 1911 at the 22nd exhibition of the Berlin Secession (cat. no. 315). Furthermore, in 1913, following the death of Adolf Gans the previous year, Klimsch designed the family’s tomb at Frankfurt’s Main Cemetery (see WVZ Braun 82). What is believed to be the Gans family’s first commission came as early as 1902 and comprised a double portrait of Nelly Herz, née Gans, with her daughter Marta, who was five years old at the time. Nelly was married to the Berlin industrialist Hans Herz, the principal shareholder of the Frankfurt-based paint company Cassella. This marvellous bronze depicts mother and daughter in tender togetherness. Klimsch constructs the figure in a traditional pyramidal form, yet lends it an astonishing lightness through the finely modelled texture of the fabric and the sumptuous drapery of their elegant clothing. Nelly Herz emigrated to England in 1936 with her adult daughters Marta and Gerta, as well as Gerta’s sons. She died there in 1942; Marta in 1974. The Klimsch bronze passed into the possession of her grandson Erik, who anglicised his surname to Smith and went on to become a successful music producer, working for, amongst others, the renowned English music publisher Decca. | 1870 Frankfurt/Main- Freiburg im Breisgau 1960 | Moderne Kunst | Skulptur/Objekt/Multiple | Nummer: 26x1878 | Provenance: Sammlung Adolf Gans (1842-1912) und Martha Gans, geb. Pick (1851-1918), Frankfurt/Main, durch Erbfolge an deren Tochter Helene Louise ("Nelly") Herz, geb. Gans (1874-1942), Berlin. Dann durch weitere Erbfolge (wohl über Tochter Gertrud ("Gerta") Schmidt-Isserstedt, geb. Herz) an Nellys Enkel Erik Smith, geb. Schmidt-Isserstedt (1931-2004), London; Kunsthandlung J. P. Schneider, Frankfurt/Main; Privatsammlung, Bayern, 1972 bei Vorgenannter erworben.

Estimate:£20,038.24

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