Painted in 1912, this is one of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff's (1884–1976) most important works before the First World War (1914–1918). Since moving to Berlin in the autumn of 1911, it demonstrates the artist's broad engagement with the various art movements of the time, particularly Cubism.
It shows Else Lasker-Schüler (1869–1945), who was born in Elberfeld in 1869 and is now regarded as an important writer and artist of the Expressionist avant-garde. Schmidt-Rottluff and Lasker-Schüler probably met through the famous magazine and gallery 'Sturm' in Berlin. Both were founded by Herwarth Walden (1878–1941), to whom Lasker-Schüler was married.
The identification of the "reader" with Else Lasker-Schüler is based on a text which the writer published in "Sturm" in January 1912. It reads:
"Schmidt-Rottluff has painted me sitting in a tent. I am enchanted by my colourful personality, by my primeval horror, by my dangerousness, but by my golden forehead, my golden eyelids, which watch over my blue poetry. My mouth is red like a wild berry, in my cheek the sky is adorned to the blue dance, but my nose blows to the east, a flag of war, and my chin is a spear, a poisoned spear. So I sing my high song.“
- Material & Technik
- Öl auf Leinwand
- Museum
- Von der Heydt Museum
- Datierung
- 1912
- Inventarnummer
- D 0190