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Carrara marble. This unique sculpture comes from the family collection of architect and painter Josef Wagner Jr. (1938–2016). It dates to between the 1929 sculpture “Glacial Erratic” and 1942, when he created “Sorrowful Spring” in response to the country's occupation by the Nazis – i.e., a period when the artist created his most acclaimed works. Torsos, statues and drawings from this period are included in the permanent exhibitions of the National Gallery in Prague, the Moravian Gallery in Brno, and regional art galleries throughout the country (Hradec Králové, Liberec, Roudnice nad Labem, Zlín). “Torso Standing on a Pebble” was first executed as a plaster model, and subsequently in fired clay. A 34 cm terracotta model is installed at the gallery in Roudnice nad Labem. The artist later enlarged the sculpture to 90 cm and executed it in Carrera marble. He ordered the marble while he resided in Rome, where he worked and had a studio in 1933–1934. He executed few sculptures in Carrera marble; the only identical enlargement in Silesian marble was executed posthumously by Marie Kulhánková-Wagnerová, Wagner's wife who was herself a sculptor (installed at the Regional Art Gallery in Liberec). The torso was photographed several times by family friend Josef Sudek. Exhibited at a large posthumous exhibition at the Mánes in 1958 (the exhibition was subsequently banned due to several religious motifs in the sculptor's oeuvre), the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Gallery of Fine Art in Cheb, at the exhibition "Josef Wagner Early Work 1979" (listed in the exhibition catalogue), at the Statue Gallery Hořice: “Josef Wagner, Early Work 1980” (listed in the exhibition catalogue); at the collective retrospective exhibition “Voices of the Earth” in Jaroměř and Hořice in 2002. Published in a monograph by Jan Mario Tomeš and in František Šmejkal's catalogue “Josef Wagner Raná tvorba” (Early Work).