Georg Kolbe (1877 – 1947) was a German painter and sculptor. I saw one of his drawings in the textbook on drawing the human figure by Gottfried Bammes which I studied for the research point on structure. I was impressed by the energy and lightness of these drawings.
Reading the Wikipedia article on Kolbe, I realized that he was mainly known for his sculptures. He seems to have concentrated on the human figure. His home in Berlin was later transformed into a museum. The museum’s website has pictures of his study – very spacious, with ultra high ceilings and 2m high windows to three sides and on the ceiling. A studio like that would be my dream!
I selected three drawings to illustrate Georg Kolbe’s style. They were all without creation date.
1) Female nude, crouching (weiblicher Akt, hockend)
2) Female nude, walking (schreitender weiblicher Akt)
3) Female nude, kneeling (knieender weiblicher Akt)
I really like how the linear elements are combined with the tonal areas. This is an approach I would like to try as well. I’m more and more inclined to choose the figure drawing option in part 5 of the course. I’m not sure whether I’ll develop the confidence to take part in life drawing classes to prepare the final drawing. I might try out this minimalistic approach on the clothed figure.
References
Wikipedia article on Georg Kolbe http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Kolbe , retrieved 4 October 2013
Website of the Georg Kolbe Museum (available in English, too): http://www.georg-kolbe-museum.de/?lang=en , visited 4 October 2013
Gottfried Bammes: Zeichenschule. Studien zur Gestalt von Mensch und Tier, Boesner 2009
English version: Complete Guide to Life Drawing, by Gottfried Bammes, Search Press 2011. Available at Amazon, eg from http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Drawing-Gottfried-Bammes/dp/1844486907/ref=la_B001HCX7AA_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380925782&sr=1-1 where there’s a video flipping through the book.