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Bernhard Hoetger´s sculptures for the Plane Tree Grove on the Mathildenhöhe were the artistic highlight of the last exhibition of the Darmstadt artists´ colony in 1914: over 40 sculptural works across the entire garden area of the Mathildenhöhe, constituting an emphatic artistic synthesis of the circle of life. This volume discusses the 40 sculptures within the context of the Art Nouveau movement in Germany.

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The Expressionist sculptor Bernhard Hoetger (1874-1949) later belonged to the artists´ circle of Worpswede, together with Heinrich Vogeler and Paula Modersohn-Becker. However, while still a member of the Darmstadt artists´ colony, he had developed a series of sculptural works for the Plane Tree Grove of the Art Nouveau exhibition centre, Mathildenhöhe, in Darmstadt. The large reliefs Spring, Summer, Sleep and Resurrection, as well as animal sculptures, jug carriers, text reliefs, vases and personifications of the bright and dark sides of human nature feature in this ensemble. Hoetger applied motifs taken from Buddhist and Christian art, and ancient Egyptian and Romantic poetry to create an almost sacred outdoor realm.

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Bernhard Hoetger s sculptures for the Plane Tree Grove on the Mathildenhöhe were the artistic highlight of the last exhibition of the Darmstadt artists colony in 1914: over 40 sculptural works across the entire garden area of the Mathildenhöhe, constituting an emphatic artistic synthesis of the circle of life. This volume discusses the 40 sculptures within the context of the Art Deco movement in Germany.

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The Expressionist sculptor Bernhard Hoetger (1874-1949) later belonged to the artists circle of Worpswede, together with Heinrich Vogeler and Paula Modersohn-Becker. However, while still a member of the Darmstadt artists colony, he had developed a series of sculptural works for the Plane Tree Grove of the Art Deco exhibition centre, Mathildenhöhe, in Darmstadt. The large reliefs Spring, Summer, Sleep and Resurrection, as well as animal sculptures, jug carriers, text reliefs, vases and personifications of the bright and dark sides of human nature feature in this ensemble. Hoetger applied motifs taken from Buddhist and Christian art, and ancient Egyptian and Romantic poetry to create an almost sacred outdoor realm.

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