Song of the Bell

Sung by Friedrich Schiller (1799)
Sketched by Josef Hegenbarth (1922)
Shown by the Hegenbarth Collection Berlin (2017)

The Hegenbarth Collection Berlin holds large stocks of brush drawings, water colours, paintings, etchings, lithographs and portfolios of long series as well as solitary works by Josef Hegenbarth (1884 Boehmisch Kamnitz — 1962 Dresden). The focus of his oeuvre is on depictions of man and animal in everyday life and in literature. His themes cover scenes in the street, in zoo and circus, theatre, coffee houses and shelters, mainly in public places such as trams, construction sites, parks and swimming pools up to literary illustrations from the bible, fairy tales, Goethe, Dickens, Balzac, Zola, Gogol to Karl May’s adventures. Three portfolios in the collection from 1922 with elaborate illustrations have neither been completely exhibited nor published to the present day: The Song of the Nibelungs, Life of a Good-for-Nothing by Joseph von Eichendorff and Song of the Bell by Friedrich Schiller. The Hegenbarth Collection Berlin now plans to exhibit these three series subsequently and publish them as books for the first time.

The initiating show on literary illustrations took place in 2016 with Two at One Sweep presenting works by Josef Hegenbarth and Max Lingner. In 2017, Hegenbarth’s portfolio to Song of the Bell continues this exhibition series. In 1922 Josef Hegenbarth created a series of 33 drawings in watercolour and red chalk, in bold colours and with a strong, expressive gesture. A book with the complete poem by Friedrich Schiller and all illustrations will be published.