Lot 49: A CARVED IVORY HEAD OF A MAN

BY JOHANN CHRISTIAN LUDWIG LÜCKE (1703-1780), 1778
Depicted facing frontally with heavily furrowed brow, wide open eyes and tightly pursed lips; signed with monogram and dated to the reverse 'CL fecit 1778'; on a later ebonised square-section wood pedestal
3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm.) high; 6 in. (15.3 cm.) high, overall

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
S. Asche, Balthasar Permoser Leben und Werk, Berlin, 1978.
C. Theuerkauff, Die Bildwerke in Elfenbein des 16.-19. Jahrhunderts, Berlin, 1986.

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Dresden-born sculptor Lücke, probably served his apprenticeship under Balthasar Permoser in his city of birth. He subsequently went on a study trip, financed by a scholarship awarded by the court in Dresden that took him to Hamburg in 1724, England in 1726 and then the Netherlands and France. When looking at the head of a man offered here, it becomes clear that Lücke was inspired by Permoser's sense of drama on a small scale and adopted his often caricature-like treatment of male faces: consider, for example, the head of Marsyas in the collection of Count Castelbaro-Albani (Asche, op. cit, pl. 47) or his ivory figures of Autumn and Winter in Harewood House, Leeds (ibid, pls. 93a-b).

Lücke's career was chequered and his work became of variable quality. In one extreme he was dismissed from the Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen in 1729 and rejected twice in 1733 and 1736 for the post of court sculptor, in Dresden, but from 1750-51 worked as a highly paid model-maker for the imperial porcelain manufactory in Vienna where his signature became a mark of high quality.

In his latter years Lücke returned to Hamburg and then Dresden where his work became smaller-scaled, more refined and highly sensitive and it is at this point that he carved the present lot - a mere two years before his death. Within the general context of his oeuvre it is arguably one of his most expressive and characterful studies of a man's face, although his bust of a Grimacing Man with Hat in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin (Theuerkauff, op. cit, no. 54) is also notable for its amusing expressiveness. With its severely furrowed brow and chin and wide open eyes, the head contains some of the intensity of Bernini's Anima Damnata that had also clearly influenced Permoser's work. And although it is unlikely that the two ariststs ever met, it does bear obvious stylistic and compositional parallels to German-born Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's Character Heads. Having lived contemporaneously to each other, it is possible that Lücke was aware of Messerschmidt's extraordinary series of 49 heads. Irrespective of that possible awareness, the present head nevertheless remains a highly individual and personal exploration into Lücke's skill for admiring the bizarre.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.