LOTTE LASERSTEIN
1898 Preußisch Holland – 1993 Kalmar
TRIPLE SELF-PORTRAIT
pencil on paper, 130 x 192 mm
signed centre bottom: Lotte Laserstein
date: c. 1928
provenance:
with the artist until the 1990’s
private collection, Sweden, a present from the above, 1990’s-2024;
Bukowskis, Stockholm, 12 June 2024, lot 779.
This drawing shows three studies Lotte Laserstein made off her face around 1928. She experiments with different positions but maintains the forceful, analytical gaze.
Laserstein was one of the first women to complete her training at the Prussian Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin in 1927. After graduating she went to work in the German capital as an independent artist specializing in the portrait genre. She made several self-portraits not because she wanted to save money for models but because this way she could give artistic expression to her self-consciousness as an emancipated woman and professional painter. Laserstein was part of a new generation of modern women who sought independence and self-sufficiency. Women entered professions previously occupied primarily by men. These women had their own ideals of beauty by which they sought to distinguish themselves from the traditional housewife. Laserstein’s striking short haircut with bangs is a good example of this.
Lotte Laserstein is considered an important representative of representational painting in the Weimar Republic. Between 1927 and 1933 she was able to work relatively independently from commissions. During these years she created works close to the New Objectivity movement. Today, these are considered the most important paintings and drawings of her oeuvre. Some of Laserstein’s work includes female nudes, which makes her one of the first women painters to take on this subject. After graduating in 1927, she opened a private painting school where she prepared female art students for the academy. Because her mother was Jewish she was declared “three-quarters Jewish” by the Nazi state during the National Socialist era. In 1933 her school was classified as a Jewish business by the National Socialists and consequently she was no longer able to practice her profession. She was no longer represented at public exhibitions and also dismissed from her position on the board of the Association of Berlin Women Artists. Her private commissions declined and the artist was forced to earn her living by giving private art lessons. In 1937 Laserstein managed to flee Germany. In connection with an exhibition of her works at the Galerie Moderne in Stockholm, she took the opportunity to leave Germany with the majority of her paintings. In order to obtain Swedish citizenship, she entered into a fictitious marriage a year later. In Sweden, Laserstein made her living by taking on commissions for portraits. Besides these, she also painted landscapes. She died in Sweden in 1993.