Peter Behrens

PETER BEHRENS (Germany, 1868 - 1940)
Table lamp, ca.1900.
In bronze and glass.
Signed on the base.
White alabaster base.
Electrified.
Lacks patina on one of the wings of the back. The lower corners of the alabaster pedestal have losses.
Measurements: 77 x 48 x 65 cm.
Modernist table lamp designed by Peter Behrens. Of sculptural concept and stylized lines, it is composed of a foot in patinated bronze and a diffuser with structure of the same material and translucent marbled glass cover. The sculptural foot, modeled in round bulk, takes the form of a winged woman in a hooded robe that raises her arms to support the dome that forms the screen. It houses in its interior three light bulbs. The lamp is accompanied by an alabaster base.
German architect and designer between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Peter Behrens studied painting at the Art Schools of Karlsruhe and Düsseldorf, and after completing his studies in 1890 he made a trip to Holland, after which he settled in Munich as a painter, advertising artist, photographer and designer. In 1892 he was a co-founder of the Munich Secession, and five years later he created the avant-garde group United Workshops for Art in Crafts. He soon abandoned painting to devote himself to the design of jewelry, furniture and glass and porcelain objects, obtaining great fame through his exhibitions in Berlin, Munich and Darmstadt. In fact, he taught at the famous Artists' Colony in the latter city between 1899 and 1903. That same year he moved to Düsseldorf, where he directed the School of Arts and Crafts. Four years later, in 1907, he joined the Deutscher Werkbund and began working as artistic advisor to the firm AEG, for which he created factories and homes as well as furniture, industrial products and advertising illustrations, thus becoming a pioneer in the use of corporate identity. Names of the stature of Gropius, Van der Rohe and Le Corbusier came to work in his office, and between the twenties and thirties he held important positions in Austria and Germany.