Gerhard Henning

Gerhard Henning (1880-1967).
Sculpture in dark patinated bronze, "Seated Girl with Outstretched Legs", 1938-1942.
Signed "G. Henning No. I".

This sculpture is the first cast of a work that was cast in six examples at the Royal Court Bronze Founder Lauritz Rasmussen. Unlike casts III, V and VI, this example is mounted on a black-lacquered plinth.

The work has a special provenance, as it belonged to the collection of wholesaler Christian Kampmann (1881-1965), mentioned and reproduced in the work Kunst i Privateje from 1944. Kampmann was one of the most significant Danish art collectors of his time and owned works by, among others, Edgar Degas, Vilhelm Lundstrøm, Olaf Rude, Jais Nielsen and Johannes Bjerg.

In his memoir Optegnelser fra 1940 og rejsedagbøger (published in 1962), Kampmann particularly highlights Vilhelm Lundstrøm and Gerhard Henning as the artists who for the longest time managed to hold his interest. About Henning he writes:

"The sweet girls, unobserved in their playing with their toes, catching fleas, picking at their toes or simply at rest, and continuing erotic situations in clay, small groups of couples in tender situations. He moved on from that."

This quote underlines Henning's artistic development: From creating dynamic group compositions in the 1920s, he moved in the 1930s and onwards to calmer single figures, often of women in relaxed poses. The seated female figure became a recurring motif in his later works.

In his description of Kampmann's collection in Kunst i Privateje, the art critic Kai Borchsenius writes:

"Gerhard Henning's 'Seated Girl with Splayed Toes' is a very large statuette and extremely characteristic of Henning's production in recent years. Is it Henning's warm humanity that gives his art such a captivating inner life, or is it his artistic mastery that grips and captivates the viewer in a uniquely unaffected way? One does not think here of struggle with the material or other technical problems. Henning's enamoured joy in form and girlish spirit animates his art so intensely that anyone can understand him."

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