Picture "Portrait of a Thoughtful Woman" (around 1922) (Unique piece)
Picture "Portrait of a Thoughtful Woman" (around 1922) (Unique piece)
Quick info
unique piece | signed | chalk drawing on handmade paper| framed | size 99 x 80.5 cm
Detailed description
Picture "Portrait of a Thoughtful Woman" (around 1922) (Unique piece)
Otto Mueller's Expressionist paintings and prints evolved from his earlier style of expression deeply rooted in Post-Impressionism, Symbolism and Art Nouveau, while retaining an emphasis on graceful body contours. Mueller differed from his "Brücke" colleagues by concentrating on a harmonious simplification of colours rather than on the expression of pure emotion.
The artist stated, "The main aim of my endeavour is to express with the greatest possible simplicity the feeling of landscape and human being."
This guiding principle is wonderfully expressed in this unique piece, "Portrait of a Thoughtful Woman". It shows the freedom with which Mueller depicts his motifs. In the sensual, subtle chalk drawing we see Elsbeth Mueller, the artist's wife. This picture is thus a very intimate and autobiographical work.
Chalk drawing on handmade paper, c. 1922. Signed. Catalogue raisonné von Lüttichau 551. Motif size/sheet size 67.5 x 49.4 cm. Size in frame 99 x 80.5 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 According to reports by contemporaries, he was a taciturn, withdrawn, even stubborn person.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.
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.