Ferdinand Spiegel, The Face of a People

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Description

‘Sarntaler Bauer’ or ‘The face of a People’
Biography: Ferdinand Spiegel

‘Farmer from Sarntal, decendent of the Goths’, ‘The Face of a People’
Depicted is ‘The Face of a People’ (‘Das gesicht eines Volkes’): the profile of a farmer from the Sarntal Valley in South-Tyrol, ‘a population believed to be descendants of the Goths’.

Displayed at the GDK 1938 room 6.
Also displayed at the prominent 1935-exhibition ‘Kollektiv-Ausstellung der NS-Kulturgemeinde Berlin’, which took place in the Berlin gallery of the Commissar for Supervision Alfred Rosenberg (‘Der Beauftragte des Führers für Überwachung’); depicted in the exhibition catalogue.
Signed 1932.

Ferdinand Spiegel was represented at early, high impact National Socialist exhibitions, at the 1937-Paris World Exhibition, at the Great German Art Exhibitions, and at the Venice Biennale.

‘Sarntaler Bauer’ by Spiegel, displayed at the GDK 1938 room 6.
   

‘Sarntaler Bauer’ by Spiegel, displayed at the 1935-exhibition ‘Kollektiv-Ausstellung der NS-Kulturgemeinde Berlin’, which took place in the Berlin gallery of the Commissar for Supervision Alfred Rosenberg. Depicted under the name ‘Bichler von Astfeld’ in the exhibition catalog; Astfeld is a village in the Sarntal Valley, Bichler an old Austrian family-name.
  

Left: ‘Stehender Mädchenakt’ (‘Nude Girl Standing’) by Thorak. Over life-size, listed nr. 29 in the exhibition catalogue of the ‘Kollektiv-Ausstellung der NS-Kulturgemeinde’, 4 March, 1935, Berlin.
Left: at the background works by Spiegel, fltr: ‘Bauer mit Stier’, ‘Sarntaler Bauer’, ‘Schlafender’ and ‘Der Fuhrmann’.
Right: ‘Stehender Mädchenakt’ by Thorak, depicted in ‘Die Völkische Kunst’, March, 1935.
  

‘Faustkämpfer’ (‘Boxer’) by Thorak. Over life-size, listed nr. 28 in the exhibition catalogue of the ‘Kollektiv-Ausstellung der NS-Kulturgemeinde’, 4 March, 1935, Berlin.
Left: at the background works by Spiegel. Fltr: ‘Sarntaler Bauer’, ‘Schlafender’, unknown, and ‘Bauer’.
Middle: at the background, fltr: ‘Mutter und Bäuerin aus dem Sarntal’, unknown, ‘ ‘Jakob Kröss von Oberstückl’ and ‘Sarntaler Bauer’.
Right: at the background, fltr: ‘Bauer mit Stier’, ‘Sarntaler Bauer’, ‘Schlafender’ and ‘Der Furhmann’.     

‘Sarntaler Bauer’: ‘The Face of a People’
The ‘Farmer from Sarntal’ was also displayed at the 1935-exhibition ‘Kollektiv-Ausstellung der NS-Kulturgemeinde Berlin’, which took place in the Berlin gallery of the Commissar for Supervision Alfred Rosenberg (‘Der Beauftragte des Führers für Überwachung’). In this highly publicized show, works were shown by Ferdinand Spiegel and Joseph Thorak. In total, Spiegel displayed 60 works here, all created in the Sarntal.
‘Das Bild’, April 1935, in which the exhibition is described, writes about the ‘Rest eines königlichen, Germanischen Stammes’ in the region of Bolzano, the capital city of South Tyrol: the ‘Sarntalern’, descendants of the Goths, ‘Gotensöhne’. Ferdinand Spiegel perfectly catched, according to Das Bild, the essence and the soal of these mountain-farmers; with good reason the organisors of the exhibition, the NS-Kulturgemeinde, gave the displayed works by Spiegel the title ‘Das Gesicht eines Volkes’ (‘The Face of a People’).
The 1935-Kollektiv-Ausstellung was also extensively covered in the March 1935 edition of ‘Die Völkische Kunst’.

Below: Alfred Rosenberg delivering a speech at the opening of the exhibition ‘Kollektiv-Ausstellung der NS-Kulturgemeinde’, 4 March, 1935, Berlin. In this highly publicized show, 60 works were shown by Ferdinand Spiegel -all created in the Sarntal Valley- and 41 works by Joseph Thorak.
At the background we see some paintings by Ferdinand Spiegel, at the foreground ‘Stehender Mädchenakt’ (bronze) by Joseph Thorak.
First row, sitting, from left to right: the ambassador of Turkey, the ambassador of Poland, the Reichsleiter der NS-Kulturgemeinde Walter Stang.

Articles about the opening of the 1935-Kollektiv-Ausstellung were i.a. published in the ‘Völkische Beobachter Berlin, 5 March 1935, and in the ‘General-Anzeiger für Bonn und Ungebung’, 8 March 1935 (below).
The ‘Völkische Beobachter’ wrote: ‘Professor Ferdinand Spiegel zeigt uns das Gesicht eines Volkes. Jahrelang hat er mit grosster Liebe das Gesicht eines Tales in Tirol gezeichnet und aus den Gesichtern dieses Menschentums blikt uns eine vielhundertjährige, ja, über tausendjahre alte Geschichte gegen. Aus manchen Typen wird lebendig das Gesicht der grossen Wanderungen der Germanische Völker, die, über ganz Europa gegangen, ihre gestaltenden Spuren auch dort heute noch zeicht, wo andere Menschenarten vorhanden, später in stärkeren Mase hinzugekommen sind’.

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