Equestrian Possibly 1910 - 1920

Arthur Volkmann made this bronze sculpture, Equestrian, at an unknown date. We can appreciate it here today at the Städel Museum. Nude youths on horseback were recurring motifs in late nineteenth-century art and were a common way to portray idealized masculinity. In the decades before the First World War, the equestrian statue assumed a new resonance with emerging nationalistic ideologies. Monumental equestrian statues became popular public art, celebrating military leaders and national heroes. While Volkmann's sculpture shares some features with these official monuments, its aesthetic diverges from the aggressive and explicitly militaristic tone of the era. The depiction of the nude youth evokes a sense of vulnerability rather than strength. Studying the history of the equestrian statue can provide insight into the complex interplay between artistic expression, political power, and shifting cultural values in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.