2011.16.2
Zwei Weibliche Akte, Auf Einem Sofa Sitzend (Two Female Nudes on a Sofa)
Artist
Georg Tappert
(Berlin, Germany, 10/20/1880 - 11/16/1957, Berlin, Germany)
Title
Zwei Weibliche Akte, Auf Einem Sofa Sitzend (Two Female Nudes on a Sofa)
Creation Date
ca. 1926
Century
early 20th century
Dimensions
13 1/4 in. x 10 7/16 in. (33.66 cm x 26.51 cm)
Object Type
drawing
Creation Place
Europe, Germany
Medium and Support
pencil with scumbling on paper
Credit Line
Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
2011.16.2
Georg Tappert’s skillful pencil drawing, most likely a study for a painting of the same year, is a record of a studio session. Tappert not only captured the physiognomy of his deliberately unidealized sitters, he also showed them in a relationship of intimacy suggestive of the sexual freedom that characterized the era. For Tappert, sketching the female nude was a daily routine. As a private art teacher first in the artist colony of Worpswede and later in Berlin, Tappert had ample access to models. His Neue Sachlichkeit style may be said to embody the tension at the root of a society poised between liberalism and fascism, a period in which artists eagerly explored the new conditions in works that engaged with social and psychological realities, and hoped for the support of a growing market and collector base.
Object Description
Per the Galleries Label (Kunsthandel Jörg Maaß) on the back of the mat (see surrogate digital image): "This is a preparatory study for the painting "Zwei Mädchen auf blauen Sofa" (Wietek 257, circa 1926)
