Woman Bathing by the Oven, 1919

About the Work

Developed in fine lines and cross-hatchings, this woodcut still exhibits the detailed draughtsmanship of the intense portraits Kirchner executed of Ludwig Schames (Städel Museum, inv. no. 65612) and others during his stay in the sanatorium in Kreuzlingen. The copy from the Hagemann Collection is the only known version in colour. It was printed from a sawn-up block in black and caput mortuum (Latin for “dead head”), a brownish red iron oxide pigment.

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.