Don Quijote
1911
Otto Gutfreund
This is a portrait of Don Quixote, the main character in a 17th-century novel. He fights against injustice, but he is completely confused and mistakes, for example, windmills for giants. "Fighting windmills" is still a way to say that a struggle is hopeless.
Details
- Plan number: C29
- Zone: Collection pavilion
- Title: Don Quijote
- Creator: Otto Gutfreund
- Date: 1911
- Material: bronze, patina
- Acquisition: purchase, 1972
- Object number: MID.B.294
Otto Gutfreund first creates a life-sized figure, but is not satisfied with it. He destroys the sculpture of the standing knight leaning on his sword, keeping only this bust. That is enough for him to express the confusion of the Spanish nobleman. By dynamically deforming the head, he perfectly conveys unrest and helplessness.
This tilted, twisted head is that of the tormented Don Quixote, but it also serves as a universal portrait of the anguished human being at the beginning of the 20th century. Gutfreund often expresses his questions and uncertainties about human existence through hesitant or confused literary figures, such as Don Quixote and Hamlet.
In his early period, the Czech sculptor and painter Otto Gutfreund mainly created portraits and reliefs. Initially expressionist, then cubist – this work shows the transition. Alongside Pablo Picasso and Alexander Archipenko, Gutfreund was one of the founders of cubist sculpture. After World War I, influenced by Czech folk art, his work became more figurative again.
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