Provenance:



Collection Dr. Karl Lilienfeld, Leipzig/ Berlin/ New York



Private collection, Winnetka, Illinois (acquired in the 1960s from Lilienfed)



Richard Feigen Gallery, New York



Maison Bernard, Caracas



Private collection, South America











Max Pechstein’s double painting ‘’Zwei liegende Mädchen‘’ symbolises the formal and colour stylistics of the Brücke group of artists, of which he was a member from 1906. Two women lie confidentially next to each other on a bed with bright red sheets – one clothed, the other naked. Their bodies stand out brightly against their surroundings, which intensifies through the powerful choice of colours and the dynamic brushstrokes.



The composition conveys an intimate, almost dreamlike atmosphere. The contrasts between the light skin tones and the black hair, the light blouse and the dark skirt against the dominant red colour surface create a tense pictorial effect that extends into the depths of the room. The Brücke artists wanted to break away from academic art traditions and find a new, free form of expression. They focused on an accentuated simplification of forms, an unbroken, expressive use of colour and a raw, direct style of painting. It is precisely these ideas that can be recognised in the highly simplified facial shapes and angular bodies of the girls.



The girl on the left is wearing a white blouse and a dark skirt. She is lying on the red bed with her head slightly tilted back, her right arm resting relaxed on the mattress. Her face is stylised, with dark, almost vacant eyes and accentuated lips. She lies there like a visionary, dreamlike appearance. The wide blouse and tight-fitting skirt emphasise her posture, at the same time underlining her subdued femininity.



In contrast, the naked girl on the right is lying on the bed in a much more relaxed position. Her upper body rests on the legs of the other, her face is half-hidden on her own arms, her gaze soft and inward-looking. Her cosiness suggests an intimacy and security that the viewer hardly wants to disturb. Particularly striking is the raw, sketchy painting style of her body, which emphasises her naked state but is nevertheless not naturalistic. Her skin is not modelled in classic flesh tones, but in expressionist shades of yellow, green and rose. It determines the emotional presence in the overall structure of the picture. Pechstein’s expressive choice of colour and his unadorned way of depicting the two girls make their portrayal much more than a mere momentary capture – a symbol of human emotions and relationships, between closeness and distance, between sensuality and melancholy.







The „Holzfigur mit Tulpen“ (Wooden figure with tulips) from 1914 bears witness to Pechstein’s interest in non-European art, in particular so-called ‘primitive’ art from Oceania and Africa. At the centre of the painting are a dark, roughly carved wooden figure and a pot of bright orange tulips on a table. The wooden figure is archaic, almost childlike and stylised with broad, angular features. It stands facing the viewer, with its gaze slightly turned away and its arms hanging down. The tulips, with their curved stems and open flowers, reach high into the room and bend gently towards the wooden figure. In front of the figure lie oranges and a cracked coconut. The colour palette of the painting is intense and expressionistic: deep green and dark blue in the background lend the picture an almost mystical depth, while the warm tones of the tulips and fruit create vibrancy.



The Brücke artists, including Pechstein, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, sought originality, spontaneity and a more direct form of expression in non-European art, which they saw as a contrast to Western academic tradition. The raw, expressive design of the wooden figure shows how Pechstein utilises these influences as an independent means of expression. The wooden figure is strongly reminiscent of the carving art of the South Seas, which Pechstein studied intensively during his trip to Palau (1913/14). Both motifs of this canvas are based on a further approach: the reflection and influence of French modernism – especially of Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse – as well as Pechstein’s fascination for the unaffected and primal. The loose, almost sketch-like painting style and the powerful colours are very much in the spirit of the Brücke movement, which spoke out against the conventions of traditional painting and instead sought an immediate, emotional visual language.