Lot 123
CARL SEFFNER
GOETHE
Auction: 25 March 2009 at 11:00 GMT
Description
white marble, gazing forwards with pensive expression on a rectangular grey veined marble plinth
Dimensions
22cm wide, 49cm high, 25cm deep
Footnote
Note: White marble head (dated 1928) of Johan Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) by Carl Seffner (1861-1932).
It is based on the 1807 face mask of Goethe by Karl Gottlieb Weisser produced for the phrenologist Franz Jacob Call, used by Johann Gottfried Schadow (1764-1850) for his head of Goethe created 1822-23- known as the 'Schadow portrait'.
There was an exhibition in 2004 about the relationship between Schadow and Goethe which was held at Casa DiGoethe ,Rome: Frankfurter Goethe Museum: Hamburg-Altonaer Museum and in Stendal at the Winckelman Museum. For details see www.casadigoethe.it
The exhibition catalogue (160 pages) contains illustrated information on Schadow and Goethe.
There is a bronze copy of this head in the Leipzig Art Museum - not sure of exact name dated 1920.