Lady with Lace Panties, 1903/06

In his drawing Lady with Lace Panties, the Austrian draftsman, graphic artist and illustrator Alfred Kubin (1877–1959) plays delightfully with exaltation and fairy-tale-like escalation to present a female figure, clad only in dark, pleated full breeches trimmed with flounces and in a tight, frilled corset, posing in a striding posture in the middle ground of the drawing. With her right arm extended backwards, she is propping herself up on a thin, elegant walking stick with a spherical, pink embellishment and putting out her chest, baring her right breast as she balances on tiny blueish heels and raises her full head of blue-glowing hair, gazing into the distance outside the picture. The affected figure is positioned centrally on a small mound in the midst of a meadow dotted with flowering crocuses or meadow saffrons. A shrub, rolling hills and fog-like mist form the background. Growing out of the foreground, a white, strangely distorted poodle is looking directly at the beholders. In front of it there is a dense cluster of irises in full bloom. Once more, Kubin reveals his talent as a brilliant storyteller: With fine pencil strokes he bestows a mysterious atmospheric density upon his narrative.

MH, 2021