14 October 2009, an exhibition of works by Georg Kolbe (1877 - 1947) opened in the Court Gallery of the Winter Palace (halls 340-342). Georg Kolbe is one of the best-known German sculptors of the 20th century. There are few sculptors whose graphic works would be valued as highly as Kolbe’s drawings. The master himself never showed his drawings separately from his other works; however, since 1921 they have become an integral part of all his exhibitions.

The group of drawings displayed at the exhibition belongs to the beginning of 1920s. Similar works by Kolbe performed between 1916-1917 and 1923-1924 are generally known as Blue Ink Drawings. The name to this group was given by Walter Walentiner, a famous art historian and director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, in his book.

In most cases the theme of these drawings lies in a movement of a female model conveyed by a swift, almost intuitively caught sketch. Only a few precise lines expressed on paper convey the nature of a strained movement, a complicated and sometimes even provocative posture so laconically and expressively. The work is finished with a few brush strokes that outline shapes and bring the necessary dramatic effect and decorative elements into the composition of the drawing.

After his two exhibited works in 1921-1922 Kolbe made small sculptures - Cappriccio and Kniende (Kneeling Woman). They reproduce the drawings almost without alterations.

One of the exhibited works is not connected with sketches of nude model. It is a project of a Memorial hall that was ordered under the will of Karl August Linger, a factory owner from Dresden.

After World War I Kolbe resumed his work as a sculptor. However, since that time in the public’s mind his graphic works have become inseparable from his other works. It is likely that the biggest part of his graphic works was acquired by one of collectors from Berlin. Unfortunately, the drawings do not have any collection marks, notes or inscriptions that could help to identify the source of their entry into the Hermitage. At any rate, during the war they were no longer in the collection of the artist. There is also no information about the works that came to the Hermitage in Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin where the master’s archives are situated and study of his works is conducted. It is likely that now it is the most interesting and significant collection of graphic works by the master outside Germany.

The State Hermitage Publishing House has prepared a scientific illustrated catalogue for the exhibition; the author of the text is the curator of the exhibition Mikhail Dedinkin, chief assistant at the Department of Western European Art of the State Hermitage.

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Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage

At the opening of the exhibition

At the exhibition

Catalogue of the exhibition

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