Picture "Nude Washing Herself" (around 1920) (Unique piece)
Picture "Nude Washing Herself" (around 1920) (Unique piece)
Quick info
unique piece | signed | mixed media on paper | framed | size 93 x 74 cm
Detailed description
Picture "Nude Washing Herself" (around 1920) (Unique piece)
Standing in an independent expressionist position, Mueller creates works of impressive clarity and simplicity. Mueller typically outlines the childlike, angular bodies of his nudes in dark colours.
The present work "Nude Washing Herself" from 1920 also symbolises this clear artistic form concept. Mueller's colour palette remains straightforward in his work: warm and muted, yellowish and pale blue with a lyrical, decorative effect.
With the retracted contours, fleeting silhouettes, and a flat representation of the nude, this unique piece becomes a typical expressionist work by Otto Mueller.
Watercolour, pastel, pencil and ink on paper, around 1920, signed. Catalogue raisonné Pirsig-Marshall/von Lüttichau P1920/46 (820). Motif size/sheet size 68 x 50 cm. Size in frame 93 x 74 cm as shown.
About Otto Mueller
1874-1930
Otto Mueller was one of the most important representatives of German Expressionism. According to reports by contemporaries, he was a taciturn, withdrawn, even stubborn person. Even though he was a member of the artists’ group "Die Brücke" since 1910, Mueller went his own way artistically. In many stylistic elements, his work is very similar to that of his fellow artists’ group members, but it differs from them in its emphasis on naturalness. Because of his artistic search for the "paradisiacal" in the connection between humans and nature, he was considered an expressionistic romantic.
Mueller was a close friend of the also introverted Wilhelm Lehmbruck. His female nudes set in earthy green landscapes are famous. So are the numerous versions of a theme that preoccupied him throughout his life: the half-exotic, half-fantastic-looking "gipsy" portraits. But his landscape paintings also reveal his independence. Their two-dimensional structured elements in muted colours and their strictly composed composition, are comparable to the great late work of Paula Modersohn-Becker.
Paintings with glazing watercolours, that are characterised by their transparency, which let deeper layers and painting surfaces shine through.
Often the paper surface is omitted. This contributes significantly to the effect of the work. The aquarelle painting requires skilful use of colour, as it dries quickly and corrections are almost impossible.
Depiction of typical scenes from daily life in painting, whereby a distinction can be made between peasant, bourgeois and courtly genres.
The genre reached its peak and immense popularity in Dutch paintings of the 17th century. In the 18th century, especially in France, the courtly-galant painting became prominent while in Germany the bourgeois character was emphasised.
Graphic artwork in the making of which the artist combines at least two graphic techniques.
A one-of-a-kind or unique piece is a work of art that has been personally created by the artist. It exists only once due to the type of production (oil painting, watercolours, drawing, etc.).
In addition to the classic unique pieces, there exist the so-called "serial unique pieces". They present a series of works with the same colour, motif and technique, manually prepared by the same artist. The serial unique pieces are rooted in "serial art", a type of modern art, that aims to create an aesthetic effect through series, repetitions and variations of the same objects or themes or a system of constant and variable elements or principles.
In the history of arts, the starting point of this trend was the work "Les Meules" (1890/1891) by Claude Monet, in which for the first time a series was created that went beyond a mere group of works. The other artists, who addressed to the serial art, include Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian and above all Gerhard Richter.