Alongside the "Javanese Dancer", which was also made in the early 1920s, Kolbe's "Brunnentänzerin" is considered one of Kolbe's most outstanding bronzes. After the present smaller version of the “Brunnentänzerin", Kolbe created a life-size version as a fountain figure of which only two casts were made. One of these large casts has been a part of the fountain in the garden of the Kolbe Museum in Berlin since 1979. The second cast was auctioned in London in 2006 and, at over one million euros, still holds the international auction record for a bronze by the Berlin sculptor. As is the case with the “Javanese Dancer”, it is the incredible lightness and an almost floating movement that makes Kolbe's “Brunnentänzerin" so fascinating. In its uniquely expansive gesture, the bronze, animated by a deep inner dynamic, almost seems to be moving before our eyes. Kolbe's fascination with modern dance rarely found such captivating expression as in his "Brunnentänzerin" ("Fountain Dancer"), which he rendered with light-footed gyration, her arms stretched to the maximum. Was it the young Berlin dancer Vera Skoronel who inspired Kolbe to create this masterful realization of the dance motif? Kolbe probably saw Skoronel performing with Wigman dance company at the Berlin Volksbühne or the Philharmonie in the spring of 1923. Hence, it is not unlikely that Kolbe's enthusiasm for the young dancer goes back to as early as 1922. In his “Brunnentänzerin”, Kolbe masterfully captured the floating lightness of a gesture liberated from all conventions. [JS]