The German sculptor Ernst Barlach (1870-1938), working predominately in wood, created important figurative carvings in that medium.

Ernst Barlach was born in Wedel, a small town near Hamburg, the son of a physician. He studied at the Hamburg School of Applied Arts (1888-1891) and the Academy of Art in Dresden (1891-1895). He briefly attended the Académie Julian while residing in Paris (1895-1896), but his stay in France did not leave any apparent mark on his sculpture.

Returning to Germany in 1897, Barlach periodically sketched for the journals Jugend, Simplizissimus, and Die fliegende Blätter and taught ceramics. One of his earliest known pieces, the Cleopatra of 1904, suggests the strong Art Nouveau interest of the time. Barlach's first mature work came as a result of a trip to southern Russia in 1906. He transformed his drawings of Russian peasants into small ceramic pieces, rounding out the generally rough...