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Copyright
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Two Standing Nudes (Zwei Stehende Akte)

Accession Number
2007/2.93

Title
Two Standing Nudes (Zwei Stehende Akte)

Artist(s)
Ernst Kirchner

Object Creation Date
1909-1910

Medium & Support
ink with ink wash on wove paper

Dimensions
13 in. x 10 1/4 in. ( 33.02 cm x 26.04 cm )

Credit Line
Gift of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection

Label copy
Felix Albrecht Harta
Hungary, 1884–1967
Portrait of Arnold Schönberg
Graphite on paper
Gift of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, 2007/2.112
Ernst Kirchner
Germany, 1880–1938
Two Standing Nudes (Zwei Stehende Akte)
1909/10
Ink with ink wash on paper
Gift of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, 2007/2.93
In contrast to Boeckl’s more academic approach to the figure, other Expressionist figure studies demonstrate an extreme economy of line in the portrayal of the human form. Felix Harta, a Hungarian who lived in Austria, presents us with a detailed portrait of Arnold Schönberg—the Viennese composer, painter, and great friend to Expressionists—in as few lines as possible.
In 1909, Kirchner intentionally set out to economize the human figure. He produced hundreds of studies of the nude female, of which Two Standing Nudes is one. The drawing shows how Kirchner mastered the human form through its mere contours. Kirchner later journaled that these nude studies “gave me the power to speak of [woman’s] beauty in the purest image of womanhood....”

Subject matter
Two frontal female nudes, posing for the viewer.

Physical Description
Two nude women looking at viewer, standing 1/4 turn to the left. Left-hand figure has right hand behind head, right elbow in air; she also has "paper-colored" hair. The figure on the right has hands on hips, elbows pointing out; left elbow a half-inch from right side of image. Right-hand figure has black hair. Two lines, center and on the right, suggest a ground/floor.

Primary Object Classification
Drawing

Primary Object Type
study

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
females
nudes
pairs

4 Related Resources

All Artists in the Degenerate Art Show
(Part of 2 Learning Collections)
Expressionism - die Brücke
(Part of 2 Learning Collections)
Face(s) of the New Deal
(Part of: Sp20 Ramaswamy - AMCULT 204 - Gendered Racial Capitalism in the Twentieth-Century United States)

& Author Notes

All Rights Reserved