This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Violetriga (talk | contribs) at 12:02, 3 June 2018 (→top: art stolen by the Nazi Party). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 12:02, 3 June 2018 by Violetriga (talk | contribs) (→top: art stolen by the Nazi Party)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Three Dancing Maidens (Template:Lang-de) is a nymph fountain (Nymphenbrunnen) sculpture by Walter Schott. There are at least six known versions of the sculpture, three of which are full size, with perhaps the most famous being the one known as the Untermyer Fountain in Central Park, New York. Which of the full-size versions is the original, if any, is disputed after it was looted by the Nazi Party.
Description
The sculpture features three life-size young women dancing in a circle, their dresses wet and clinging to their bodies. The girls have their fingers intertwined and gleeful expressions on their faces. Dianne Durante, author of Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan, writes that "it radiates delight, in a way few sculptures match, and there isn’t any point of view that doesn’t reveal some new, graceful aspect".
History
Creation
Schott began the creation of Three Dancing Maidens towards the end of the 19th Century, using girls from the local Berlin area as models. After numerous sketches he made a model at three-quarters scale followed by 36 more attempts. Despite all the work he was unhappy with the project until he met Rudolf Mosse. Mosse, a wealthy and influential newspaper magnate in Berlin, spoke with Schott about his desire to have a fountain in the grounds of his palace on Leipziger Platz. The Mosse Palais was already home to a large collection of art and Mosse hoped to have a decorative fountain placed in the courtyard. The conversation inspired Schott who, as a perfectionist, worked on the design for several more years. The piece was finally installed in the early 1900s.
There are between six and eight castings of the sculpture, three of which are full size.
Ownership
When Rudolf Mosse died in 1920 his estate passed onto his daughter Felicia and her husband Hans Lachmann-Mosse, including the newspaper Berliner Tageblatt. The rising power of the Nazi Party meant that a Jewish-run media empire was not viewed favourably. In 1933 Nazi Officer Wilhelm Ohst arrived at the Mosse Palais and announced the imminent auction of all the artwork, including the fountain. The family fled and the building was turned into Hans Frank's Academy for German Law. A photograph taken in 1940 shows the courtyard with a stone lion replacing Schott's sculpture.
Many pieces of art stolen by the Nazi Party have been returned to their original owners while others have been lost. Wally Mersereau, a wealthy investor from Northern California, enjoyed spending time as an amateur researcher. Around the early 2010s Mersereau visited New York and a walk in Conservatory Garden in Central Park drew his attention to the Untermyer Fountain. The plaque showed that the fountain was dedicated to Samuel Untermyer and his wife Minnie. With help from translated excerpts from Schott's memoirs Mersereau was able to track down six versions of Three Dancing Maidens including the original, two full-size casts, and three three-quarter scale versions. The Untermyer Fountain is one of the full size casts which was donated to the park by the children of Samuel Untermyer in 1947, having originally stood at his estate in Yonkers, New York. There are no known documents which record how that cast of the sculpture came into the Untermyer's possession. Mersereau made it his personal mission to find every copy of the sculpture that existed, travelling the globe to view each one. He found two other full-size versions: one in Den Brandt Park, Antwerp, and the other in the courtyard of the Burg Schlitz, a hotel in Mecklenburg, Germany. The one in Germany is believed to be the original but provenance is disputed. If investigations found which one was the original it may have to be returned to the Mosse family estate. The plinth on which the sculpture stands may be the original one but testing it requires permission of the owner, something he has not been keen to do.
The other copies of the sculpture are the three-quarter size ones: One can be found in the grounds of Gondelsheim Castle, one outside Georg-von-Stauß-Villa, Berlin-Dahlem, and another just outside of the E.ON administration building in Potsdam.
-
The Untermyer Fountain in New York.
-
The fountain in Den Brandt Park, Antwerp.
-
The fountain at the Burg Schlitz.
-
A three-quarter size copy at Gondelsheim Castle
References
- ^ "Untermyer Fountain". Central Park Conservancy. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
- ^ Shaer, Matthew (June 2018). "The Lost Maidens of Berlin". Smithsonian. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
- Durante, Dianne. "Untermeyer Fountain". ForgottenDelights.com. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
- ^ Diehl, Heidi (4 August 2007). "Drei tanzende Mädchen mit Zahnbelag" (in German). Neues Deutschland. Retrieved 3 June 2018.