Nude Girl Standing, n. d.

With tender pen strokes and strong red outlines, the Austrian graphic artist and sculptor Georg Ehrlich (1897–1966) captures on the paper the silhouette of a nude girl in frontal position, unmoving. The delicate budding breasts of her youthful body are in contrast to her already pronounced feminine hips. The narrow shoulders and the arms kept close to the body emphasize her self-conscious, shy posture. Ehrlich’s graphic work was informed by the impression of the Expressionists Egon Schiele (1890–1918) and Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1918). So the artist developed gently flowing, elegant linework and placed the focus of his representation on facial expression. The young girl looks amazed and questioning—the soulful expression of an adolescent sensitively rendered by Ehrlich.

AK, 2021