Female Nude, 1908

About the Work

The motif of the woman at her toilette was presumably inspired by Edgar Degas (1834–1917). Kirchner shows the nude from behind, so close up that she fairly bursts the bounds of the composition. Whereas in the classic woodcut the image is formed by the parts not cut of the wood, in this so-called white-line woodcut the opposite is true. The light-hued body of the woman takes shape from a large number of coarse gouges in the wood of the printing block – virtual translations of rapid, forceful brushstrokes.

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.