Alfred L?rcher

(b Stuttgart, 30 July 1875; d Stuttgart, 26 March 1962). German sculptor and draughtsman. He trained as a designer of casting moulds in the workshop of Paul Stotz's bronze foundry in Stuttgart from 1892 to 1894. This was followed by two years' training at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Karlsruhe, and from 1897 to 1898 he was a specialist craftsman, producing designs for iron stoves at the craft workshops of W. W?chter in Kaiserslautern. He then continued his studies with the sculptor Wilhelm von R?mann at the Akademie der Bildenden K?nste, Munich, from 1898 to 1901. There he was particularly interested in Adolf von Hildebrand's theories on sculpture. In 1905 he travelled to Rome, Naples and Sicily. The study he made there of antique and early Classical art is reflected in his own sculptures in a simple treatment of body volumes based on early Classical models. During his period in Berlin (1908-14), when he discovered the work of Aristide Maillol among others, the subject emerged that was to dominate his art until the 1940s: the nude, usually female (e.g. Girl Standing, h. 1.38 m, 1921; Stuttgart, Staatsgal.). Most of his seated or crouching figures are engaged in some simple, unpretentious occupation such as reading, looking into a mirror or washing.

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