Nude sculpture “Young Woman” (1903/04) by Georg Kolbe, reduction in bronze

It was his encounters with the artist Louis Tuaillon and the works of Rodin that led Georg Kolbe (1877-1947) to become a sculptor. He had studied painting, but from 1900 onward devoted himself primarily to sculpture. From the very beginning, his nudes differed from those of academic sculpture of the time. He contrasted the often rigid depictions of the human figure, reduced to a mere catalog of poses, with postures that referenced the new modern dance and appeared graceful and natural precisely because of the consciously artistic expression of his models. Kolbe's "Young Woman" from 1903/1904 is among his early masterpieces.