Seated Nude Fixing Her Hair, 1908

About the Work

The bold perspective and curving lines of this nude testify to Kirchner’s close familiarity with the art of Henri Matisse (1869–1954). At the same time, the print reveals clear traces of the working process. Areas not cut out of the printing block entirely with the knife or gouge print as half-tones. The lower corner of the thick cardboard has been torn off and then somewhat clumsily patched again by the artist. He also retouched the print in other places with a brush and black ink and added details around the mouth and eyes.

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.