Bowed Head, 1917

About the Work

The woodcut in two colours looks like the translation of a sculpture into the printmaking medium. The formal language betrays the influence of Futurist and Cubist works Schmidt-Rottluff had become acquainted with in Berlin. His friend the sculptor Otto Freundlich (1878–1943) and his patron Wilhelm Niemeyer (1874–1960) will undoubtedly also have acted as important catalysts here. Traces of the woodworking and the grain of the wood recede behind the geometric-constructive aesthetic.

About the Acquisition

From 1900 onwards, the Frankfurt chemist and industrialist Carl Hagemann (1867‒1940) assembled one of the most important private collections of modern art. It included numerous paintings, drawings, watercolours and prints, especially by members of the artist group “Die Brücke”. After Carl Hagemann died in an accident during the Second World War, the then Städel director Ernst Holzinger arranged for Hagemann’s heirs to evacuate his collection with the museum’s collection. In gratitude, the family donated almost all of the works on paper to the Städel Museum in 1948. Further donations and permanent loans as well as purchases of paintings and watercolours from the Hagemann estate helped to compensate for the losses the museum had suffered in 1937 as part of the Nazi’s “Degenerate Art” campaign. Today, the Hagemann Collection forms the core of the Städel museum’s Expressionist collection.