Hamburg – Hamburger Kunsthalle (The Man in Stocks by Ernst Barlach)

Although I thought at first this was a bronze sculpture, it’s actually made out of oak. I hadn’t previously heard of Ernst Barlach, although it has transpired that there is a museum dedicated to him and his works which is located in the suburbs of Hamburg. If I come to the city again, I will certainly meander along down to see it.

Barlach became anti-war following the First World War and this later set him on a collision course with the Nazis in the 1930s, who described his art as degenerate. They banned him from working as a sculptor and he could no longer be a member of art academies. He died in October 1938 after having seen many museums in the country have to remove, and sometimes destroy, his artworks in 1937.