Skip to content
ONLINECOLLECTION

Rosa, 1923

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Watercolor on paper
24×19.4 cm

Artists

  • Otto Dix

    (Untermhaus [today: Gera] 1891–1969 Singen (Hohentwiel))

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
Brash, vulgar, unabashed, with thick red-painted lips and heavy rouge on her high cheekbones, with slightly slanted eyes and a coarse nose, the figure of a woman, naked and mask-like, is grinning at us. Otto Dix (1891–1969) intensifies—with the keen eye of a relentless observer of human abysses—the dissolution of the lascivious facial features though the use of wine-red and forest-green watercolors. Rendered with sure brushstrokes in expert drawing style, the voluptuous nudity of the woman’s upper body shows not only the left breast with an erotically tattooed areola, but also a name tattoo, “Rosa”, in a banderole. It refers—as does the dedication, “For Mr. Angermayer, Nov. 23, DIX.”, placed next to the woman’s head—to a play entitled Comedy Around Rosa by playwright and screen writer of Fred Antoine Angermayer (1889–1951), of whom Dix also produced a portrait.

Object data

Artist/author
Title
Rosa
Date
1923
Art movement
New Objectivity
Category
Graphic work
Material​/technique
Watercolor on paper
Dimensions
24×19.4 cm
Signature
Signed, dated and designated upper right using watercolor: Für Herrn Anger-mayer Nov. 23, DIX.; designated center using watercolor: Rosa
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 1780
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Keywords

If you have further information on this object, please contact us.

Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

For provenance related information, please contact us.