Two Women

1912
oil on canvas

Style/Movement: Expressionist

Presented by the executors of Dr Rosa Shapire 1954

N06249

Although this work was painted in Hamburg, it was probably inspired by the artist’s regular summer visits to Dangast on the North Sea coast. The dunes, grasslands and fishing villages of this area appear in a number of Schmidt-Rottluff’s paintings. The mask-like faces of the two women may reflect Schmidt-Rottluff’s familiarity with masks from Cameroon. The artists of the Brücke group drew inspiration from the African and South East Asian artifacts in the Dresden Ethnographic Museum, which they saw as embodying an unspoilt and more authentic culture.
(From the display caption July 2008)