Gerhard Marcks was a German artist, known primarily as a sculptor but who is also known for his drawings, rare paintings, woodcuts, lithographs and ceramics. With architect Walter Gropius, German-American
 painter Lyonel Feininger, Scheibe and others, Marcks was a member of two art-related political groups, the Novembergruppe (November Group) and the Arbeitsrat für Kunst (Workers Council for Art). He was also
affiliated with the Deutscher Werkbund, of which Gropius was a founding member. In 1919, when Gropius founded the Bauhaus, in Weimar, Marcks was  one of the first three faculty members to be hired, along with
Feininger and Johannes Itten.