Seated Nude

Earlier in his career, Pechstein was a member of the important group of German Expressionist artists known as Die Brücke, and was a friend of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, whose work is exhibited on the opposite wall. Working in pure, flat areas of color both in this work and in his paintings, it is perhaps not surprising that he also for a time worked as a designer of stained glass. His interest in Oceanic art and the work of Gauguin is also apparent here; inspired by that artist, he had traveled to the South Seas in 1914, prior to serving in the First World War. Made immediately following the war this watercolor is one of a series of nude studies of this model.