Berlin 1910: “Frau mit Inder auf Teppich” (Woman with Indian Man on Carpet) and the scandalous “Brücke” paintings
We do not know precisely when Pechstein fell in love with his model, Lotte, enraptured by her dark hair, full lips, and distinctive features. Yet this intimate moment must have occurred between their first meeting in the spring of 1909 and their marriage shortly after Lotte's eighteenth birthday in March 1911. The year 1910, when this double-sided painting “Woman with Indian on Carpet / Fruits,” depicting the reclining nude Lotte, was created, was a decisive year for Pechstein, both personally and artistically. It was the moment when, inspired by this love, the young painter succeeded in creating something extraordinary in the art metropolis of Berlin, daring to try something completely new in terms of style and motif, bringing an expressionist painting to the canvas that was virtually unrestrained in its bold colors and immediacy. Fascinated with Lotte, her dark complexion, and her sensual, casual physicality, Pechstein, who had moved from Dresden to Berlin in 1908, began painting nudes. Lotte quickly became Pechstein's number one model and the key motif for his artistic breakthrough, making her one of the most important models in Expressionism.

Pechstein joined the artist group “Brücke” in 1906, while he was still in Dresden, where the group had been established a year earlier by architecture students Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Fritz Bleyl, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. In the years that followed, these young, progressive artists were to shake up the established academic art world with their entirely new, unconventional painting style, both in terms of motifs and aesthetics. Pechstein, in particular, never missed an opportunity for artistic provocation: As early as April 1909, he caused a furor at the Berlin Secession exhibition under the direction of Max Liebermann with his lost multi-figure nude painting “Das gelbe Tuch” (The Yellow Cloth), for which Lotte also posed and which was described by exhibition visitors at the time as “the ultimate in indecency.” But none of this curbed the 28-year-old painter, for in the same year he caused another stir with his famous poster design for the first exhibition of the 'Neue Secession', an association of artists rejected by the Berlin Secession, which broke with all conventions: He depicted a naked Amazon with a bow and arrow, again based on Lotte, with full red lips and thick black hair. The poet Else Lasker-Schüler made the following statement about it: "Just imagine [...], the poster for the Neue Secession was in the café. That's Pechstein's wife. [...] She is pictorially fierce, she wore a purple robe with yellow fringes." (quoted from: Aya Soika, Max Pechstein, Vol. I, Munich 2011, p. 85). And finally, it was the now-lost nude painting “Weib” (Woman, 1910), also showing Lotte, that caused another uproar in the Berlin art world in the legendary first exhibition of the 'Neue Secession'. As with our exceptional composition, this painting, presented in the “Brücke” section of the exhibition, was derided as a “chamber of horrors,” also showing Lotte naked and reclining on the side. The exaggerated, “barbaric forms” and the “piercing colors” (quoted from: ibid., p. 269), which caused widespread disgust in the press, and which also characterize our composition “Woman with Indian on Carpet,” created at the same time, are now considered the epitome of Expressionism - one of the most notable chapters in 20th-century art history.

"There was a buzz in the Café des Westens, in the ‘Größenwahn’ [...]. We, the rejected, agreed not to leave it at that and to organize a counter-exhibition. We founded the Neue Secession and took the names of all those who seemed to be fellow fighters. This brought me into contact with the ‘Blauer Reiter’ group in Munich, with Franz Marc, August Macke, and Kandinsky. [...] I had lithographed a poster showing a kneeling female figure shooting an arrow from a bow. Now, of course, the divide became even more pronounced. Bitter squabbling raged in the press and in ‘Größenwahn’. Spirits clashed, and we of the younger generation enjoyed it, even though our opponents stopped at nothing. Our pictures were spat on, swear words were scrawled on the frames, and one of my paintings, a reclining nude in golden yellow, was pierced with a nail [...] by a miscreant. Once again, this battle strengthened the sense of community within ‘Die Brücke’.

Max Pechstein, Erinnerungen, reprint of the edition Wiesbaden 1960, Stuttgart 1993, p. 41.

In this critical year, Pechstein painted confidently and boldly, creating the Lotte-based "Mädchen mit rotem Fächer" (1910), today one of the highlights of the Neue Galerie collection in New York, as well as our “Weib mit Inder auf Teppich", in which he placed the male and female nude on a bright green blanket against a glowing red background. Both bodies, like the fruit bowl in the foreground, are heavily cropped by the edges of the picture, and the perspective is also exceptionally fascinating. Spontaneous, broad, and clearly visible brushstrokes reflect the work's dynamic creation, abruptly leaving behind the academic structure of Wilhelmine salon painting at the turn of the century. Even the nature-oriented compositions of Impressionism are swept aside by Pechstein's vibrantly colorful and flat paint application.

Upon closer consideration, it is obvious why Pechstein's striking nude paintings had such a significant impact on the established Berlin art scene at the time: the naked bodies of Lotte and the unknown male model in” Weib mit Inder auf Teppich” glow in bright shades of orange, red, yellow, and green. Captured naked and in a casual pose, free from all conventions, erotic tension is palpable between the woman and the Indian man, man and woman, which, in the naturalness and originality of their charisma, seems like a provocative reinterpretation of the traditional depiction of Adam and Eve, which, in the spirit of Expressionism, succeeds in capturing sensation and therefore the invisible. With this provocative composition of reclined nudes on a blanket, Pechstein also refers to a highly well-known painting in art history that caused a scandal: Edouard Manet's “Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Luncheon on the Grass)” (1863, Musée d'Orsay, Paris), which was rejected by the jurors of the Paris Salon in 1863 on account of its outrageous subject matter and ultimately became a sensation at the Salon des Refusés, the Paris protest exhibition that is considered one of the most significant events on the path to European Modernism.


"Weib mit Inder auf Teppich" / "Früchte" – A double-sided masterpiece and long-kept secret of modern art
Perhaps it was precisely at the moment when Pechstein painted “Woman with Indian on Carpet” that the young artist became aware of his love for Lotte, for it seems as if intense feelings found expression in this powerful composition. It was around the beginning of 1910 that Pechstein created another painting of Lotte and the Indian model, who remains unknown to this day, during the same session in his studio at Durlacher Straße 14 in Berlin: the painting “Inder und Weib” (Indian Man and Woman, 1910), which is now part of the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum. In 1951, it was acquired from the collection of Karl Lilienfeld (Leipzig/Berlin/New York) by the renowned modern art collection of Morton D. May. The expressionist palette is likewise intense in this composition, although the motif appears much less bold, even reduced in comparison. The male model sits before a mirror in splendid attire, composed in an almost classical manner. At the same time, Lotte, lying naked on the floor in the foreground, turns her back and buttocks toward the viewer in a less revealing manner.

So why exactly did art historian and expert Karl Lilienfeld choose the significantly weaker composition “ Inder und Weib” for his collection of modern art? Was Lilienfeld not daring enough at the time to opt for the more erotic composition “Weib mit Inder auf Teppich” upon his visit to the artist’s studio? Probably not, because Lilienfeld—as we know today—no longer had the opportunity to choose between these two closely related paintings, as Pechstein used the canvas of “Weib mit Inder auf Teppich” for another vibrant painting, the still life “Früchte” (Fruits) in 1910, the same year as the nude was created. What was probably due to financial hardship and material shortages at the time is now considered an extraordinary feature.

While Pechstein's expressionist nudes were still clearly too much for contemporary art appreciation, his sophisticated still lifes were more popular and much easier to sell. This is also evident in Pechstein's painting “Früchte”, the new front side of the “Weib mit Inder auf Teppich”. This painting is more restrained, not only in motif but also in composition and color: the apples are yellow-red, based on their natural model; the pears are green; and the lemons are yellow. The impressive and masterfully composed still life shows Pechstein's stylistic and compositional examination of Paul Cézanne's still life painting, which Pechstein had come across together with Kirchner and Schmidt-Rottluff at Galerie Paul Cassirer. For economic reasons, Pechstein sacrificed his recently created nude and painted it over with white distemper, which fortunately was easy to remove, before adding the following signature and description in the context of the sale: "M. Pechstein / Berlin-Wilmersdorf / Durlacherstr. 14 / Früchte / 500 [Mark]" (Fruits / 500 [Mark]).


"My livelihood in Berlin was still insufficient, both financially and otherwise. I remained a poor man. At Durlacher Straße 14, I worked intensely and numbed my hunger by drinking coffee and smoking tobacco. With this lifestyle, it was inevitable that I would collapse in the winter of 1910/11. […] Towards the end of winter, Kirchner came from Dresden and moved into the studio next door. However, our plan to improve our financial situation by setting up a joint painting school failed."
Max Pechstein, Erinnerungen, reprint of the edition Wiesbaden 1960, Stuttgart 1993, p. 46.


Finally, the overpainting and the inscription were removed in 1989, revealing the secret behind this outstanding “Brücke” composition “Weib mit Inder auf Teppich”, hitherto hidden on the reverse side. Up until then, the opulent and masterfully composed still life “Früchte” was the only known side of the double-sided painting. It was probably represented both in the early Pechstein exhibition at Galerie Ernst Arnold in Dresden in 1919, a seminal event in promoting ‘Die Brücke’, as well as in the Expressionist exhibition at the 'Fine Arts Society' in Amsterdam in 1920. After the spectacular rediscovery, the painting, boasting two masterpieces, has been on display in numerous exhibitions, including the major retrospective "Brücke. The Birth of German Expressionism" at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid and the Brücke Museum in Berlin.


The fascination of the foreign – Metropolis Berlin: the allure of the unknown as a source of inspiration and a place of longing
Around 1910, Berlin was an urban center of international significance, rapidly advancing with automobiles, telephones, over 100 daily newspapers (some published multiple times a day), global media outlets, theaters, variety shows, dance halls, and international art exhibitions. Pechstein moved to Berlin in 1908, and Kirchner followed three years later, both intrigued by the city's atmosphere and eager to capture it in their works. Like Pechstein, Kirchner was a cosmopolitan, but he never left Germany, apart from the last years of his life, when he spent them in seclusion in the Swiss mountains. Pechstein, on the other hand, had already traveled to Monterosso al Mare in Italy in 1907 with the financial means of the Saxon State Prize he had previously won in Dresden. A three-month stay in Paris, the French art metropolis dominated by Impressionism and early Fauvism, followed, during which Pechstein enjoyed the nightlife, wearing a tailcoat and top hat despite his financial straits. Eventually, he was the first “Brücke” artist to settle in Berlin for good. Europe became increasingly connected, and travelling to neighbouring countries became easier, though it remained an extremely costly and time-consuming undertaking. Other continents, however, still exuded the great fascination of the foreign and the inaccessible.

The fascination that theater, variety shows, and circuses exerted on the Bohemian artistic community at that time was tremendous. With international stars, dancers, and artists performing in a wide variety of events, these venues were a vibrant “window to the world.” Pechstein and Kirchner were crazy about dance, about bodies, and, above all, about the appeal of the new and unknown. The same year Pechstein painted “Weib mit Inder auf Teppich”, he also made the small but highly expressive painting “Tänzer” (1910, Museum Folkwang, Essen), which, inspired by the popular Spanish style of the time, shows a couple dancing flamenco, fully absorbed by the rhythm and erotically entwined. Kirchner also captured the fascination of the unknown on several occasions. His “Tanz im Varieté” (1911, Kunstmuseum Basel) shows a black male dancer with a white female dancer on a stage, and celebrates the African American dance fad known as the “Cakewalk,” which made its way from the northern USA to the hippest venues in Europe at the beginning of the century.


"At [Max] Reinhardt's behest, I was allowed to spend as much time at the theater as I wanted, studying everything, making sketches during rehearsals, and staying backstage and in the dressing rooms during performances in the evenings, which brought me into close contact with the most important members of his ensemble. […] For me, this world was inextricably linked with the desire to create something new within it.”
Max Pechstein, Erinnerungen, reprint of the edition Wiesbaden 1960, Stuttgart 1993, p. 47.


During these decisive “Brücke” years, Pechstein and Kirchner, like many other modern artists, were interested in a seemingly endless range of cultural influences: the contemporary liking of Spanish culture, sparked in part by the hit opera “Carmen”; Orientalism and Japonism, known primarily from 19th-century French painting by artists such as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Eugène Delacroix and from literature; and, above all, a growing awareness of distant cultures brought about by German colonialism. During this period, both artists repeatedly produced drawings and paintings depicting PoC models, with whom the “Brücke” artists presumably also came into contact through their exposure to theaters and dance houses. Thus, it can be assumed that the Indian model in “Weib mit Inder auf Teppich” also came into contact with Pechstein in this context.
Alongside “Weib mit Inder auf Teppich”, Kirchner’s painting “Schlafende Milli” (Sleeping Milli, 1911, Kunsthalle Bremen) also appears outrageously unconventional and modern. It depicts a black-skinned nude model in a studio in a pose that harks back to historical models such as Giorgione’s famous Renaissance painting “Sleeping Venus” (1510, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden). Kirchner also succeeded in creating an exotic, surprisingly modern, and provocative presentation of the foreign, thanks to its casual naturalness. Whether in Pechstein's powerful “Weib mit Inder auf Teppich”, his portrait of the ebony model ‘Nelly’ (1910, San Francisco Museum of Art), Kirchner's “Tanz im Varieté” (1911, Kunstmuseum Basel), or his “Schlafende Milli”, what all of these paintings have in common is the profound fascination these artists had for the foreign, which they declared to be worthy of depiction and thus an official element of society. All of these paintings are expressions of a new, culturally diverse, and therefore particularly inspiring metropolitan Bohemianism.

However, like Kirchner, Pechstein grew weary of the hectic and at times exhausting metropolis after a few years and, inspired by Paul Gauguin and contemporary photographs of the Palau Islands, finally declared the distant South Seas, untouched by civilization, to be his artistic place of longing. In July 1913, Pechstein wrote: “May the ancient Italians give me their blessing and strength, for a Berlin winter is long and exhausting. Once this future winter is over, I hope it will be the last for some time, and that Berlin will only give me the means to live a quiet, peaceful working life somewhere in the South Seas [...]” (quoted from: Aya Soika, Der Traum vom Paradies. Max und Lotte Pechsteins Reise in die Südsee, exhibition catalog, Kunstsammlungen Zwickau 2016/17, p. 37). When the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt finally granted him a horrendous advance of 10,000 marks on his sales, the decision was made. For Pechstein and Lotte, the expensive journey to the German South Sea colony of Palau could finally begin with the first-class crossing to East Asia on the Norddeutscher Lloyd. Twenty-one-year-old Lotte also shared Pechstein's longing for a supposedly better, more relaxed life far away, as her diary entry from May 16, 1914, reveals: “I have a great desire to soon be far away from everything that is forced and cultivated.” (quoted from: ibid., p. 31). Pechstein and Lotte shared a deep longing and fascination for the foreign and unknown, which finally became reality in the summer of 1914. However, after several weeks of travel, this longed-for stay soon came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of World War I. Pechstein was imprisoned by the Japanese and had to face reality with full force even in his long-awaited, distant paradise.


Lotte and Fränzi – The leading models of the “Brücke” and Expressionism
Apart from Lotte, who remained Pechstein's number one model until 1920, the artist also painted Franziska Fehrmann, known as “Fränzi,” the famous model for all the “Brücke” artists, at the height of the group’s popularity in 1910. Fränzi first came into contact with the artists in 1909, at the tender age of eight, and eventually became their most important model in Moritzburg in the summer of 1910, defining the “Brücke” style decisively. In mid-July, Pechstein left Berlin for Moritzburg to join Kirchner and Heckel, spending the summer swimming and painting. In addition to “Weib mit Inder auf Teppich” and the other aforementioned paintings based on Lotte, Pechstein created “Das schwarzgelbe Trikot” ( The Black and Yellow Jersey, 1910, Brücke Museum, Berlin), “Sitzendes Mädchen” (Seated Girl, 1910, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) and “Das grüne Sofa” (The Green Sofa, 1910, Museum Ludwig, Cologne), all of which are also considered icons of Expressionism today. In these works, Pechstein depicts Fränzi in casual poses in nature, on a blanket, or on the green sofa in a manner that is as bold as it is modern. In “Das Grüne Sofa”, Pechstein shows Fränzi in the very same yellow-black shirt that Ernst Ludwig Kirchner used to depict his “Artistin” (1910, Brücke Museum Berlin) from the same time, in the legendary yellow and black leotard. Kirchner's paintings “Fränzi vor geschnitztem Stuhl [Fränzi in front of a carved chair]” (1910, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid) and “Sitzende Mädchen [Seated Girl]” (1910/20, Minneapolis Institute of Art) from this paramount “Brücke” year are also considered prime works of German Expressionism.

While the young “Brücke” artists succeeded in emancipating form and color from the shackles of the natural model in their progressive figure painting around 1910, the immediate impression of the landscape of the Bavarian Alpine foothills paved the way for a new, two-dimensional and freely applied style of painting for the artists of the
During these years, Wassily Kandinsky, together with Gabriele Münter, found inspiration in the landscape around Murnau, leading to an increasing liberation of form and color, which would ultimately take them into the realm of abstraction. Meanwhile, the young Franz Marc turned his attention to his ethereal animal and landscape scenes in Sindelsdorf, Bavaria, into which he ultimately placed his famous blue, yellow, and green horses in the years before the outbreak of World War I. Even Alexej von Jawlensky—the great master of stylized human portraiture— gained decisive inspiration during this formative phase of Expressionism from his unrestrained landscape painting, which he continued to produce on an equal footing with his spontaneous early Expressionist portraits and which today—like his “Spanish Dancer” (1909, private collection) and “Helene with Colorful Turban” (1910, Guggenheim Museum, New York) – are his undisputed masterpieces.

It is therefore the birth of Expressionism, so significant for art history, when the young, nonconformist, and extraordinarily gifted Max Pechstein captured this stunning scene, “Woman with Indian on Carpet,” on canvas in his Berlin studio, leaving all traditions behind in terms of color, composition, and erotically charged motifs. But Pechstein has left us not only with a painting of outstanding quality and art-historical significance. This painting is also an emotionally charged testimony to the spellbinding attraction his beloved model Lotte exerted on him in the seminal year of 1910. [JS]

The collector Alfred Eisenlohr (1875–1952) – Haunting in the bathtub and rescue through the snowstorm
The exact moment when the work entered Alfred Eisenlohr's collection can not be confirmed by an invoice or purchase receipt, as is so often the case. Consequently, research leads to one of the most fascinating publishing archives, which allows us to understand the circumstances, interests, and contacts of the first owner through letters and documents. Alfred Eisenlohr came from Karlsruhe, where his father was director of the Baden State Railway. In 1914, he became a partner in the Munich-based Piper publishing house, founded in 1904 by Reinhard Piper (1879-1953). Since the publishing house's founding, Piper has been in close contact with artists including Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Franz Marc, and Kandinsky. He made his mark in art history with the publication of one of the most essential avant-garde manifestos, the almanac “Der Blaue Reiter” (The Blue Rider) in 1912. It was probably his interest in art and literature that prompted Eisenlohr, formerly a tax officer in Mannheim, to enter the new industry. At Piper Verlag, he combined business with content. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he enlisted as a volunteer and was deployed primarily on the Western Front in Alsace. He continued to correspond with Munich, from where Piper, who was repeatedly granted leave from military service on account of his business obligations, reliably wrote multi-page reports. On the other hand, Eisenlohr sent fewer signs of life; mostly field postcards with just a few lines, situation reports, location changes, and requests for books or equipment. Piper looked after Eisenlohr's affairs in Munich and reported on February 13, 1915: "The janitor [...] was at the publishing house and said that the people on the third floor had heard noises in the apartment at 10 p.m. and that the bathtub was full of water, even though Mr. Eisenlohr would probably have drained it after use. However, this was some time ago, and there have been no further reports of ghosts." Eisenlohr's reaction to this disturbing news is not recorded in any letters, but he seems to have instructed Piper to take valuable items to a safe place: "My response to the questions is as follows: [...] There have been no further signs of ‘ghosts’ in the apartment. The caretaker inspects the apartment regularly and has always found everything to be in order. Mr. Beeh [an artist friend] has placed the Pechstein in his studio. I carried it over myself during a snowstorm (but that didn't damage it in any way)." The author and addressee know the work in question, which is why, as is so often the case, the specific title is missing from this description. However, only one Pechstein work is known to exist in the Eisenlohr collection, namely the present work.In 1915/16, Piper and Eisenlohr's interest in Pechstein seems to have reached its peak. Piper acquired a watercolor from Goltz and sent Gurlitt's Pechstein brochures to Eisenlohr in the field. In 1916, the publisher released the first monograph on Pechstein by Walther Heymann. In this respect, the unverifiable date of acquisition offers an enriching opportunity to explore the stories, contexts, and realities of the owner's life, lending this important work an additional intriguing dimension. [KT]