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The Von der Heydt Museum owns several paintings by Emmy Klinker (1891-1969), who grew up in (Wuppertal-)Barmen and whose view of Barmen hangs in the second room of this exhibition. In addition to landscapes, she also painted portraits and interiors. The Wuppertal collection contains examples of all genres.
Portrait of a Young Woman from 1920-21 shows a woman with dark hair and a focused gaze, seemingly unaffected by the chirping of the yellow canary on her shoulder. As viewers, we are on the outside, unable to see where the woman is looking. The strong and determined expression and the striking face make the figure stand out powerfully against the diffuse background. Perhaps this is a self-portrait of Emmy Klinker.

The small painting of an interior with a bed, a lamp and a male figure beside it is also by Klinker, who is generally regarded as a 'second generation Expressionist'. The strong, high-contrast colours and the impasto application of paint suggest that Interior was also painted in the 1910s or early 1920s. It may have been painted in the context of the war, as the artist was concerned with the human suffering associated with war. Klinker was an Expressionist painter before turning to New Objectivity in the 1920s.

Klinker spent the Nazi era in seclusion in Munich. Three of her works from the Ruhmeshalle in Barmen were confiscated as part of the Nazi 'degenerate art' programme and she was banned from exhibiting them. She was imprisoned for five months in Dachau concentration camp in 1944/45 for having sheltered Jewish friends. Klinker continued to exhibit after the war. She died in a car accident in Munich in 1969. In the years and decades that followed, her works were almost forgotten. It was not until 2012 that they were once again presented to a wide audience in the exhibition 'The Storm. Centre of the Avant-Garde' at the Von der Heydt Museum.