Works

This work was doubtless painted in Dangast, where Pechstein travelled to from Berlin at the beginning of July to meet Karl Schlidt-Rottluff who, like Erich Heckel, had been working in Jadesbusen in northern Germany since the spring. In the painting, one of Pechstein’s best of 1910, the painter shows a refined feeling for color nuances and modulation which he acquired from his thorough knowledge of French painting (Matisse among others). The figure depicted is sitting at a table, her right arm propped up, and smiling across to someone outside the picture. Her somewhat overly made-up face with strong red lips and hair combed tightly back seems to have been of great interest to Pechstein. Her expression shows trust and suggests a relation between the painter and his model. As we find a face full of character with red lips in other of Pechstein’s paintings from this period, it is highly possible that she is Lotte (Charlotte) Kaprolat, who accompanied the artist to Dangast in the summer of 1910 and who he married at the beginning of 1911.