Polar Bear

Josef Pallenberg

Ref: 2569

Price : 18,000 €

Polar Bear

Josef Pallenberg

29 x 45 cm (11³/₈ x 17³/₄ inches)
Germany
Inscribed on the side of the base: Jos. Pallenberg
Sandstone cast

Description: Josef Pallenberg (Cologne 1882 - Duesseldorf 1946)
Sandstone cast
Inscribed on the side of the base: Jos. Pallenberg
A three-dimensional depiction of a striding polar bear stands above a rectangular base

Josef Pallenberg

Josef Franz Pallenberg (1882–1946) was a German animalier sculptor whose art grew from lifelong, almost scientific observation of animals. Born in Cologne, he began drawing after childhood visits to the Cologne Zoo and later trained at the Düsseldorf Academy under Karl Janssen. Rather than treating animals as decorative symbols, Pallenberg studied anatomy, skeletons, movement and temperament, building a large archive of sketches, casts and natural specimens. His reputation was established through exhibitions in Düsseldorf and Berlin, where he showed numerous animal figures and won recognition for works such as Flying Eagle. Commissions for major zoological settings, including bronze groups for the entrances of Berlin Zoo and Hagenbeck’s Tierpark in Hamburg, brought his sculpture into public space. Lions, tigers, bears, eagles and prehistoric animals appear with muscular accuracy and psychological tension. His surviving bronzes preserve one of early twentieth-century Germany’s most disciplined, observant approaches to animal sculpture.