Pomona

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Pomona

Gerhard Marcks (German, 1889–1981)

German

1932

Medium/Technique Austrian limestone

Dimensions Overall: 95.3 cm (37 1/2 in.)
Front edge: 13.5 inches
Back edge: 14.25 inches
Sides are about 18.5 inches

Credit Line Charles Amos Cummings Fund

Accession Number58.18

NOT ON VIEW

CollectionsEurope

ClassificationsSculpture

Marcks carved this figure of the Roman goddess of fruit trees after a 1928 trip to Greece and Rome solidified his passion for early Greek sculpture. Though he explored Expressionism early in his career, Marcks later said: "I stayed with the Greeks; … in an epoch dominated by a subjective conception of art, I strive for an objective art, for craftsmanship, tradition, nature."

DescriptionLimestone. Nude figure with hair braided at neck, scarf held in both hands across lower back, seated on block of two rectangles, solid behind and beneath raised right leg.

ProvenanceSold by the artist to Fritz von Borries (b. 1892 - d. 1975), Lübeck and Bad Schwartau, Germany [see note 1]; between about 1952 and 1957, sold by von Borries, possibly through the Galerie Günther Francke, Munich, to the Galerie Rudolf Hoffmann, Hamburg; 1958, sold by Galerie Rudolf Hoffmann to the MFA for $2,400. (Accession Date: January 9, 1958)

NOTES:
[1] Arie Hartog of the Gerhard-Marcks-Haus kindly provided the MFA with documentaton of the sale of this sculpture to Fritz von Borries (a friend of the artist's family) of Lübeck after it was exhibited at the Galerie Cassirer in 1933.