Frauenbüste

1910 marked a decisive turning point in Wilhelm Lehmbruck’s artistic and personal development. After early successes, he moved from Düsseldorf to Paris with his family in April 1910 and gradually began to shake off the influence of Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) and Aristide Maillol (1861–1944).

In that same year, he produced the »Tall Standing Woman«, which he classified as one of his “major works,” and is also in the collection of the Kunsthalle. It marks the transition from his early works with their strong naturalistic orientation to his late Expressionist works. Lehmbruck now found an increasingly precise answer to his burning stylistic and formal questions.

The »Bust of a Woman (Bust of Mrs. L)« was also created in this transitional period. It depicts his wife, Anita Lehmbruck (1879–1961), and was one of his most successful works during his lifetime. At the same time, the torso-like quality of the bust already anticipates Lehmbruck’s future artistic development, for it was precisely in the torsos produced over the following years that he most vigorously pursued his experiments in form.