Figure"Lilian Harvey as Fanny Elssler"
Rosenthal Kunstabteilung Selb
1940s
designed by Lore Friedrich-Gronau (model 1667 from 1937).
height 29.2 cm
white porcelain, under- and enamel painting, matted, glazed
under-glaze mark of the Rosenthal factory and the inscription "LILIAN HARVEY", impressions in the mass: signing on the base: "L. Fr.Gronau.", on the base model no: "1667/0 22" handwritten signature: "Handgemalt 952n U/R".
LORE FRIEDRICH-GRONAU
[1908 Görlitz - 2002 Münsterschwarzach]
From 1928 to 1934, Lore Friedrich-Gronau studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, under Professor Fritz Klimsch. Starting in 1929, she designed book illustrations for the Herde und Schneider publishing house. In the 1930s, Gronau also began working as a sculptor, making busts and female nudes. Beginning in 1939, she showed her sculptures at exhibitions of the Prussian Academy of Art in Berlin and the House of German Art in Munich. In 1937, Lore Friedrich-Gronau was commissioned to create a porcelain figurine of actress Lilian Harvey, playing the role of dancer Fanny Elssler. The design for the figurine was realized that same year at Rosenthal. Thus began the factory's collaboration with Lore Friedrich-Gronau, which lasted until 1961 and resulted in figures of famous actresses and dancers, such as the aforementioned Lilian Harvey, Ursula Deinert or sisters Hedi and Margot Höpfner.
Lilian Harvey posed for the project in the costume of Fanny Elssler, whom she played in the biographical film. The film's producer, at the actress's urging, commissioned a Fanny Elssler figurine from sculptor Lore Friedrich-Gronau in 1937. Thus began Rosenthal's collaboration with Friedrich-Gronau. The sculptor, trained at the Berlin Academy in the studio of Professor Fritz Klimsch, designed figures for the Kunstabteilung branch in Selb until the early 1960s.
