Bernhard Hoetger. (1874 Hörde/Westphalia - 1949 Interlaken/Switzerland) Laughing Buddha "Light" from the cycle "Light and Shadow Sides". Original title. (later also titled "Bonze des Humors") Earthenware, cast, red body, yellowish sand-coloured engobed, colourless, transparent glaze. Signed and dated 1912. "B. Hoetger 1912" and titled "Licht". The figure, also called "Bonze des Humors" in the large cast stone version from 1914, shows a corpulent Buddhist monk or Buddha seated on a plinth and expressing exuberant cheerfulness. Hoetger was evidently inspired for the "Light" by a god of good fortune figure of the semi-legendary monk Budai from China or Japan. Hoetger created this sculpture as part of the important 15-piece cycle of "Light and Shadow" figures (1911/12). Max Laeuger realised Hoetger's designs as early as 1912 in the artistic ceramics department of the Tonwerke Kandern, which he managed, and the ceramic figures were initially distributed by Galerie Arnold in Dresden. In 1914, Hoetger staged the complete ensemble in a conceptual juxtaposition in one room during the last exhibition of the artists' colony in Darmstadt. Company mark "KTK". H. 47.5 cm. Further examples can be found in the Mathildenhöhe Institute in Darmstadt (inv. no. 384/1 PL), the Focke Museum in Bremen (inv. no. 1988.374j), Museum Ostwall in Dortmund, among others. Wvz. Drost no. 276, ill. 69. References (in selection): R. Stiller: "Majolika-Figuren von Bernhard Hoetger", in "Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration", vol. 31,1912/13, pp. 299-306 (ill. p. 302); M. Creutz: "Majolika-Gruppen von Bernhard Hoetger", in "Dekorative Kunst", XXI. vol, 1913, pp. 22-32, ill. pp. 22, 24; J. Benn: "Hoetgers Majolikafiguren", in "Die Reinlande", vol. XXIII, 1913, issue 5, pp. 177-180, ill. p. 180; Uta Bernsmeier: "Licht und Schatten (...)", Cat. Focke-Museum, Bremen 1993. pp. 58 f., 72 f. Provenance: from the collection of a Hamburg entrepreneurial family. Slipped and glazed earthenware figurine. Minor chips to the glaze. Signed, dated 1912 and titled. Factory mark. Kandern clay works. Circa 1915-1929.