Terracotta Venus by Margarethe Garthe (1891–1976)

A beautiful and mesmerising terracotta nude torso sculpted by Margarethe Garthe, an important pre-war surrealist painter and sculptor.

Standing 35cm tall, set on the original, wooden base. A signed, artists exhibition label is pasted to the underside of the base.

Artists Biography

Sculptor and painter, Margarethe Garthe was born in Kassel, Germany, in 1891. She began her career in Stuttgart, where she participated in significant exhibitions, including the Stuttgarter Sezession in 1929 and the Juryfreie Künstlervereinigung Stuttgart [Jury-Free Artists' Association of Stuttgart] in 1931 and 1932. Among her works from this period was a bust of the reform educator Gustav Wyneken, which featured on the cover of a special issue of Junge Menschen in 1927, while the Leo Baeck Institute in London holds a photograph of a sculpture by Garthe of the head of Jacob Picard, poet and lawyer, dating from c. 1938. 

In 1952, Garthe moved to England, settling in Beckenham, south London, where she continued her artistic career, creating works that reflected influences of both surrealism and abstraction. In 1958 she contributed to Ben Uri’s Annual Exhibition and three years later she participated in the opening exhibition for Ben Uri's new premises in Berners Street. At the age of 76, she held her third London exhibition at the Drian Galleries, established by Polish émigré, Halima Nałęcz. She also exhibited at the Loggia Gallery in London in 1972 and contributed to an exhibition at Southwark Cathedral the same year. Margarethe Garthe died in Beckenham, London, England in 1976. In the UK public domain, her works are represented in the collection of the Central Library, Bromley, Kent.

Text from: Ben Uri Gallery, London

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