Otto Mueller / Three Women in a Wood

 

Three Women in a Wood

by Otto Mueller

ARTIST

Otto Mueller, German, 1874–1930

DATE

c.1920

MATERIAL

Oil and distemper on burlap mounted on panel

MADE IN

Germany, Europe

CLASSIFICATION

Paintings

CURRENT LOCATION

On View, Gallery 215

DIMENSIONS

48 x 53 1/16 in. (121.9 x 134.8 cm)
framed: 62 1/4 x 67 1/8 x 2 1/2 in. (158.1 x 170.5 x 6.4 cm)

CREDIT LINE

Bequest of Morton D. May

RIGHTS

Public Domain

OBJECT NUMBER

916:1983

NOTES

Otto Müller has depicted a trio of stylized nudes in an idyllic forest setting; their elongated forms are strongly outlined in black. Although a member of Die Brücke, Müller used a more restrained palette than the other artists in this group. He also preferred the matte finish of the tempera medium, here employed on a rough burlap surface. Müller painted a dark female type, influenced by the features of his first wife, Maschka, as well as his awareness of African sculpture.

SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM

Otto Mueller / Maschka with Mask

Maschka with Mask

by Otto Muller

• Otto Mueller
  

• Maschka mit Maske, 1919/21

• Maschka with Mask
• Distemper on hessian
• 95,5 x 67,5 cm
• Acquired in 1978 with the support of the Eugen-und-Agnes-von-Waldthaausen-Platzhoff-Museums-Stiftung
• Inv. G 426
• Museum Folkwang, Essen

Although personal references can only rarely be distinguished in Otto Mueller’s pictorial narratives, this painting can be linked directly to the artist’s biography. The figure depicted is Maschka, who Mueller met in Dresden in 1899 and married in 1905. At the time the painting was made, Mueller was thinking about a divorce because he had recently started having an affair with a student of his at the Breslauer Akademie. ›Maschka with Mask‹ appears as a double portrait of the artist and his wife: Mueller himself is incarnated in the mask which hangs like a trouvaille on the wall, with its empty eye sockets and a seemingly petrified mouth, thin-lipped and resigned. Maschka, on the other hand, seems self-confident and trendy, lively and temperamental. Like in other double portraits, in this painting in Essen Mueller not only takes on the role of viewer; he also subjects himself to self-questioning and examination because of the doubtful relationship between the two.

MUSEUM FOLKWANG