Portrait of O. M. (Otto Mueller), Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Portrait of O. M. (Otto Mueller)
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Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

Portrait of O. M. (Otto Mueller), 1914


Blatt
598 x 468 mm
Druckstock
359 x 289 mm
Physical Description
Woodcut on laid paper
Inventory Number
66028
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)

Texts

About the Work

Nervous hatching charges Schmidt-Rottluff‘s portrait of his friend the painter Otto Mueller (1874–1930) with psychological tension; the masklike facial features remove it from the realm of naturalism and lend it an exaggerated expressiveness. At the same time, the artist seems to have viewed the face from the perspective of a sculptor who partitioned it geometrically, as it were, into its more prominent and its more deep-set zones.

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.

Work Data

Basic Information

Title
Portrait of O. M. (Otto Mueller)
Artist
Period Produced
Object Type
Physical Description
Woodcut on laid paper
Material
Technique
Geographic Reference
Label at the Time of Manufacture
Signiert unterhalb der Darstellung rechts (mit Bleistift): S. Rottluff; nummeriert unten mittig: 1441
Captions Added Later
Bezeichnet unten links (mit Bleistift): Sch. 162.; nummeriert unten rechts: 559.
Verso bezeichnet und nummeriert unten links (mit Bleistift): DrHagemann, Nr. 14.
Verso mittig links Stempel des Städelschen Kunstinstituts, Frankfurt am Main (Lugt 2356), mit zugehöriger Inventarnummer
Watermark
  • Nicht vorhanden
Work Catalogues
  • Schapire H. 162
  • Zählung nach Schmidt-Rottluff 1441

Property and Acquisition

Institution
Administration
Collection
Creditline
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Picture Copyright
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023
Acquisition
Acquired in 1948 as a donation from the heirs of the Carl Hagemann estate

Work Content

Motifs and References

Genre
Persons Shown

Iconclass

Primary
Secondary
  • 31A221 head (human)
  • 31B62 morphology of facial expression
  • 49D32 line (~ planimetry, geometry)
  • 49D43 prism ~ stereometry

Research and Discussion

Provenance

Object History
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), Davos
verkauft über die Galerie Schames, Frankfurt am Main an Carl Hagemann (1867-1940), Frankfurt am Main, 1928
Nachlass Carl Hagemann, Frankfurt am Main,1940
Schenkung der Erben an das Städelsche Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main, 1948.

Information

Since 2001, the Städel Museum has systematically been researching the provenance of all objects that were acquired during the National Socialist period, or that changed owners or could have changed owners during those years. The basis for this research is the “Washington Declaration”, also known as the “Washington Conference Principles”, formulated at the 1998 “Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets” and the subsequent “Joint Declaration”.

The provenance information is based on the sources researched at the time they were published digitally. However, this information can change at any time when new sources are discovered. Provenance research is therefore a continuous process and one that is updated at regular intervals.

Ideally, the provenance information documents an object’s origins from the time it was created until the date when it found its way into the collection. It contains the following details, provided they are known:

  • the type of acquisition and/or the way the object changed hands
  • the owner's name and place of residence
  • the date on which it changed hands

The successive ownership records are separated from each other by a semicolon.

Gaps in the record of a provenance are indicated by the placeholder “…”. Unsupported information is listed in square brackets.

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Last update

15.05.2023