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Kolbe, Georg
(b Waldheim, 15 April 1877; d Berlin, 20 Nov 1947). German sculptor. At the age of 16 he left school to attend painting and drawing classes at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Dresden. From 1895 he studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich and in 1897–8 for six months at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he won first prize in the drawing class. His earliest independent works date from this period, including small drawings in India ink and watercolour (e.g. In memoriam Brother John, 1897; Berlin, Kolbe Mus.). In 1898 he went to Rome for three years, and there his interests turned to sculpture under the encouragement of Louis Tuaillon and August Gaul. After returning to Germany, he met Max Klinger in Leipzig, who became his friend and mentor. In 1904 Kolbe settled in Berlin, where he became a member of the Secession. In 1909 he visited Rodin’s studio at Meudon in France, and although he did not meet the sculptor, his style was nevertheless influenced by his work. Kolbe volunteered for the army in 1915 and in the following year was commissioned to design war memorials, including one at Eppegem (1916), Belgium, and another at Therapia, near Istanbul. In 1918 he became a professor and in 1919 a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. During this period he was concerned with Cubist concepts of form, while in his portraits he sought to convey the character of his sitters by stressing specific aspects of their physiognomy, as in Paul Cassirer (bronze, h. 320 mm, 1925; Berlin, Alte N.G.). During the Third Reich it became difficult for him to find employment, and some of his works were destroyed in Allied bombardments in 1943. His last years were overshadowed by illness and the gradual loss of his sight. Kolbe’s sculptures, predominantly of cast bronze, show his interest in movement. Above all, he favoured the free-standing nude and sought harmonious forms to indicate a well-balanced spirit, for example in Dancer (bronze, h. 1.54 m, 1911–12; Berlin, Alte N.G.). The work of his earlier years is characterized by graceful female figures, but later restrained male figures predominate, as in Resting Athlete (bronze, 470*260 mm, 1935; Berlin, Kolbe Mus.).
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