Weib mit Inder auf Teppich / Früchte II (Rückseite). 1910.
Oil on canvas, painted on both sides.
The still life "Früchte II" is monogrammed (in ligature) and dated in the lower right. 71.5 x 82.5 cm (28.1 x 32.4 in).
In Aya Soika's catalogue raisonné, the two paintings on the front and back are titled “Inder und Frauenakt” (1910/54) and “Früchte” (1910/3), both of which are registered under a separate number in the catalogue raisonné.
Due to a shortage of supplies, Pechstein painted the fruit still life in 1910 on the back of the canvas of “ Weib mit Inder auf Teppich” (Woman with Indian Man on Carpet). Soika points out that the still life was probably created under the direct influence of the Cézanne exhibition at Galerie Paul Cassirer in Berlin in 1909, which Pechstein attended together with Kirchner and Schmidt-Rottluff. The inscription “M. Pechstein / Berlin-Wilmersdorf / Durlacherstr. 14 / Früchte / 500 [Mark]” (M. Pechstein / Berlin-Wilmersdorf / Durlacherstr. 14 / Früchte / 500 [Mark]), which the artist added after he had completed the still life, was photographed and removed in the course of an exhibition in 1989.
During this period, Pechstein, like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and others, painted some of his canvases on both sides. What, at the time, was the result of material shortages and financial hardship is now regarded as a unique feature.
Like the two paintings “Der Große Inder” (1910, St. Louis Art Museum, Soika 1910/52) and “Inder und Weib” (1910, St. Louis Art Museum, Soika 1910/53) from the former collection of the critical American modern art collector Morton D. May, Saint Louis, the present painting “Frau mit Inder auf Teppich” was also created in Pechstein’s Berlin studio at Durlacherstraße 1 in early 1910.
Pechstein also captured the Indian model, about whom nothing else is known, in another painting that is now lost (“Indian Man, Squatting,” lost, Soika 1910/55).
The reclining nude in the present painting was modeled on Charlotte Kaprolat. Pechstein met “Lotte,” his main model with sensual lips and exotic facial features, in early 1909 and married her shortly after her 18th birthday in March 1911.
The nude painting “Woman” (1910, Soika 1910/56), for which Lotte also sat model and which is lost today, was presented in the “Brücke” room of the legendary first exhibition of the Neue Secession at the Berlin Kunstsalon Maximilian Macht in 1910, where it caused a public scandal due to its motif and the new, expressionist style. [JS].
• A masterpiece of Modernism from the dawn of Expressionism.
• A radical novelty: subject, composition, perspective, and color scheme.
• Museum quality: comparable Expressionist paintings are primarily held in international collections.
• Art and Eros: an early depiction of Charlotte “Lotte” Kaprolat, Pechstein's lover and later wife.
• Extensive exhibition history: shown in , among others, “Brücke. Die Geburt des deutschen Expressionismus” (2005/06), Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid / Brücke Museum Berlin.
• Motif closely related to “Inder und Weib” (1910, Saint Louis Art Museum, formerly Morton D. May Collection).
• The lost nude painting “Weib” (1910, also inspired by “Lotte”) is considered one of the most scandalous paintings of the “Brücke”.
• Spectacular on both sides: nude portrait and fruit still life from Pechstein’s ‘Brücke’ heyday.

PROVENANCE: Private collection, Bavaria (probably 1920s–1986).
Private collection, southern Germany ( 1986-2011).
Private collection, Europe (acquired from the above in 2011).

EXHIBITION: Max Pechstein. Special exhibition at Galerie Ernst Arnold, Nov./Dec. 1919, probably no. 8, (there under the title “Äpfel und Spiegel” [Apples and Mirrors], not illustrated).
August Exhibition of the Expressionists, Society for Fine Arts, Amsterdam, Municipal Exhibition Building, Scheveningen, August 1920, probably no. 31 (there under the title” Tisch am Spiegel, 1910” [Table by the Mirror, 1910], not illustrated).
Max Pechstein. Eine Ausstellung des Kreises Unna, Schloss Cappenberg 1989, list of exhibited works p. 191 (both paintings illustrated in color on pp. 53 and 69).
Figures du moderne. L’Expressionisme en Allemagne 1905-1914, Dresden, Munich, Berlin, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Nov. 18, 1992-March 14, 1993, cat. no. 100 (“Weib mit Inder auf Teppich” illustrated in color on p. 134).
Max Pechstein. Sein malerisches Werk, Brücke-Museum Berlin, Sep. 22, 1996-Jan. 1, 1997; Kunsthalle Tübingen, Jan. 11-Apr. 6, 1997; Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Apr. 20-June 15, 1997, cat. no. 47 (“Weib mit Inder auf Teppich” illustrated in color).
Brücke. Die Geburt des deutschen Expressionismus, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Fundación Caja Madrid, Feb. 1–May 15, 2005, cat. no. 125 (“Weib mit Inder auf Teppich” illustrated in color on p. 223), and Brücke Museum, Berlin, Oct. 1, 2005–Jan. 15, 2006, cat. no. 134 (“Weib mit Inder auf Teppich” illustrated in color on p. 259).

LITERATURE: Aya Soika, Max Pechstein. The Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, Vol. 1: 1905-1918, Munich 2011, CR no. 1910/54 and CR no. 1910/3 (both paintings illustrated in color).
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Expressionnisme Allemand, Musées Beaux-Arts, Paris hors serie, 1993, ill. p. 6.
Barbara Lülf, Die Suche nach dem Ursprünglichen, Max Pechstein und Palau, in: Magdalena M. Moeller (ed.), Max Pechstein. Sein malerisches Werk, exhibition catalog, Munich 1996, p. 83.
Janina Dahlmanns, Primitivismus, in: Magdalena M. Moeller and Javier Arnaldo (eds.), Brücke. Die Geburt des deutschen Expressionismus, exhibition catalog, Brücke Museum Berlin, Munich 2005, p. 253.