Nackte Lena, 1924

About the Work

Helene “Lena” Brubacher (1904-1991)was Hermann Scherer’s (1893–1927) lover at the time Kirchner made this woodcut. He depicted her in a pose that reverts to older deliberations, manifest, for example, in the sculpture “Sad Woman” (Städel Museum, inv. no. SGP206)or the woodcut “Nude Wearing a Black Hat” (Städel Museum, inv. no. 65759). The composition – reductive virtually to the point of abstractness in the background details – marks the transition to the artist’s ‘late style’. This print from the Hagemann Collection is the only one known.

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.