Female Nude, Sitting, n. d.

The figure, formulated by the painter and graphic artist Karl Hofer (1878–1955) with soft pencil strokes, flowing contours and an emphasis on individual details through compacting, short hatching and smudging, appears enraptured, diaphanous and androgynous. With his undated drawing Female Nude, Sitting, Hofer illustrated his empathetic approach to his figures and his sensitive depiction of humanness. Sitting cross-legged and slightly turned to the side in a chair enveloping her body, her sideways glance gazing into the distance, the reduced depiction of the earless, rotund-ovoid head with the mask-like, expressionless face appears other-worldly, timeless and removed from reality. As with many of Hofer’s human depictions, the seated nude has a metaphysical quality and represents a mythical concept of man for which he was labeled “decadent” and defamed by the National Socialist regime as a “degenerate artist”.

MH, 2021