Nude Wearing a Black Hat, 1911 – 1912

About the Work

It was his lover Doris Grosse who stood model for Kirchner’s painting "Nude with Hat" (Städel Museum, inv. no. SG 1168), which testifies to his close familiarity with the art of Lucas Cranach (1472–1553). This woodcut develops that pictorial idea further. Yet even if the broad-brimmed hat and the pose of the body and hand lead us to suppose direct Cranach quotations, the link to that artist is first and foremost in the room-dominating presence of the naked body. Years later, Kirchner once again devoted himself to this pose in wood – in the sculpture "Sad Woman" (Städel Museum; inv. no. SGP206).

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.