About the Work
Crude and direct – that is the impression conveyed by many of Kirchner’s nude depictions from his Dresden years. Yet hardly any of them show the female body as unashamedly as this painting, which was not discovered until 2010. Her legs spread far apart, the woman exposes her genitals to full view. She is surrounded by objects familiar to us from other depictions of Kirchner’s studio. Unlike many works dating from the period in question, this one was spared later revision because the artist had used the back of the canvas for a scene of the Moritzburg Ponds.