Seated Woman with Flowers, 1927

Like in a still life, Hans Böhler (1884–1961) lines up a woman, a bulging large vase with lush flowers, and a tiny egg cup in his 1927 work Seated Woman with Flowers. They are arranged on and at a table against a deep green background which allows for associations with summer landscapes. The hazily shimmering composition is constructed of highly contrastive color areas made up of lines with a crosswise blur. The woman sitting at the table with her doll-like skin and beady black does not communicate with the viewers. Rather, she is the embodiment of introversion, resting her crossed arms somewhat defensively on the tabletop. Utterly self-absorbed, she pays no attention to her wide neckline seam of her dress that has slipped down her shoulder. The geometric clarity and reduced depiction of a head is also seen in sculptures and sculptural works of that time, like for example in the Head of a Woman by Franz Hagenauer (1906–1986).

RR, 2021