Jiri Setlik has confirmed the authenticity of this work.

Described as ‘the most important Cubist sculptor after Picasso’ (P. Daix, Cubists and Cubism, Geneva 1982, p. 120) Otto Gutfreund started life in a Czech and Jewish environment in a small town in northern Bohemia. Gutfruend studied at the Prague school of decorative and applied arts from 1906 to 1909 subsequently going to Emile-Antoine Bourdelle in Paris, who taught the sculpture class at the Grande Chaumière, where Gutfreund worked until 1910. Upon returning to Prague in 1911, spurred on by an exhibition of Cézanne’s works in Prague, and the influence of Picasso, Braque and Derain, Gutfreund rejected Bourdelle’s more Classical approach in favour of an exploration of Cubism through sculpture. His sculptures and reliefs of 1911-1912 are, after Picasso’s Tête de Femme (Fernande) of 1909, some of the earliest Cubist sculpture. In this work, Milenci (Lovers) of 1913-1914 the influence of Picasso’s landmark sculpture is clear in the multiple planes that create the limbs and features of the figures.

Although a recognised as an influential artist in his time, Gutfreund was never a wealthy artist, and so his lifetime works tend to be plaster, cast posthumously in bronze. Lifetime works such as this are rare, particularly with this unusual reddish brown patina yet his bronze sculptures are found in many major collections across the globe including the London Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.