Singing Man (1928): Art, History and Details

Singing Man (1928) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Ernst Barlach (German, 1870–1938).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

One of the most celebrated sculptors of the Expressionist movement in Germany, Barlach first began exploring ways to convey inner feeling through depictions of the human body around 1906. As this singing man pulls his knee toward his body, his closed eyes and open mouth suggest deep concentration. A staunch opponent of the Nazis, Barlach was declared a “degenerate artist” and forbidden to teach or exhibit in Germany.

Object facts

• Title: Singing Man
• Date: 1928
• Creator attribution: Ernst Barlach (German, 1870–1938)
• Culture: Germany, 20th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 49.8 x 53.3 x 36.8 cm (19 5/8 x 21 x 14 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Sculpture 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1937.3204

Collection credit

Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William. "New Acquisitions of Present-Day Sculpture." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 25, no. 4 (April 1938): 63-65.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.