Manufacture Friedrich GOLDSCHEIDER - Lot 111

Manufacture Friedrich GOLDSCHEIDER Hans SCHÖRK (Vienna 1849 - 1899) Young Dutch Girl with Headdress polychrome terracotta print 53.3 x 32 cm signed 'Cherc' (Goldscheider artist) publisher's stamp 'Goldscheider' (reference GS 14 Sculpture) numbered '2606 / 122 / 25'. damaged shoulder, repaired Bibliography: F. Goldscheider, Goldscheider: Firmengeschichte und Werkverzeichnis, Stuttgart, Arnoldsche, 2007, n°2606, p. 363 An indisputable figure of the Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau), Friedrich Goldscheider (1845-1897) founded a ceramics factory in Vienna in 1885: Goldscheider'sche Porzellan-Manufactur und Majolica-Fabrik ("Goldscheider Porcelain and Majolica Factory"). The workshop quickly gained a reputation for its polychrome terracotta sculptures: the realistic treatment of the subjects and their natural polychromy won over customers. By the end of the century, the company's success had gone international: with the help of his children, Friedrich opened branches in Florence, Paris, Leipzig and as far afield as the United States, and his works were in demand the world over. World War II forced the Goldscheider family into exile in the USA, and the factory was soon sold. To this day, it remains considered one of the most remarkable and prolific factories of the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly in terms of its Art Nouveau and Art Deco productions. In 2016, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna dedicated a monographic exhibition to her. The work presented here is referenced in the catalog raisonné of the manufactory (F. Goldscheider, Goldscheider: Firmengeschichte und Werkverzeichnis, Stuttgart, Arnoldsche, 2007, n°2606, p. 363). This young Dutchwoman was probably made when Friedrich's widow, Regina Goldscheider, was running the company. This particular period in the company's history coincides with a veritable flowering of Art Nouveau, in which the theme of femininity is infinitely expressed through numerous representations of women. The "Cherc" signature is that of Viennese sculptor Hans Schörk (Ibid., p. 559). The choice of this pseudonym can be explained by the Germanophobic feeling that the Franco-Prussian war had left in France: as far as Parisian production was concerned, the factory thought it wise to Frenchify the names of German and Austrian sculptors.