Mother, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Mother
de
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Blatt
600 x 421 mm
Druckstock
370 x 306 mm
Physical Description
Woodcut on wove paper
Inventory Number
66047
Object Number
66047 D
Acquisition
Acquired in 1948 as a donation from the heirs of the Carl Hagemann estate
Status
Can be presented in the study room of the Graphische Sammlung (special opening hours)

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About the Work

Schmidt-Rottluff’s portrait of his mother has a tectonics so solid as to seem timeless. Rather than showing an individual, it takes on the quality of an existential, universally valid monument that – against the background of World War I – also demands to be understood as such. The artist ‘modelled’ the face in sculptural manner and sawed the printing block to the shape of the head.

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.

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Last update

06.11.2024