Otto Dix's "Portrait of Josef May"
Author(s): William H. Robinson
Source: The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 74, No. 8 (Oct., 1987), pp. 306-
331
Published by: Cleveland Museum of Art
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306
Volume 74, number 8 Otto Dix's Portrait of Josef May
Cover. Portrait of Josef May. Mixed
media on plywood, 84 x 68.3 cm.,
1926. Otto Dix, German, 1891-1969.
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund.
CMA 85.40
The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum
of Art (ISSN 0009-8841), Volume 74,
number 8. Published monthly, except
June and August, by The Cleveland
Museum of Art. Subscriptions: $25.00
per year. Single copies: $2.50. Copyright
1987 by The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Postmaster send address changes to
CMA Bulletin, 11150 East Boulevard,
Cleveland, Ohio 44106. Second-class
postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio. Editor,
Jo Zuppan. Photographer, Nicholas
Hlobeczy; Assistant, Stephen Kovacik.
Designer, Laurence Channing; Assistant,
Richard Sarian.
Between the world wars and before the rise of Nazism, a
remarkable movement known as Die Neue Sachlichkeit (The New
Objectivity) flourished in Germany that perfectly mirrored the
depressed, neurotic spirit of the time. Until the recent acquisition
of Otto Dix's Portrait of Josef May (Cover),1 the Cleveland Museum
had no paintings representing that particular style. This was unfor
tunate, since Die Neue Sachlichkeit was both the leading artistic
movement in Germany during the 1920s and the most extreme
manifestation of the general trend toward realism that flourished in
Europe and America following World War 1.2 Die Neue
Sachlichkeit blossomed during the early chaotic years of the
Weimar Republic (1919-23), reached its zenith in the mid
1920s-when it attracted a broad spectrum of artists,
photographers, novelists, playwrights, and filmmakers-and finally
perished with the rise of National Socialism in the early 1930s. Of
the many artists associated with the movement, Dix has been
described as "the dominant personality of Neue Sachlichkeit in
German painting."3
In addition to being a master of Die Neue Sachlichkeit, Dix was
one of the few great portraitists of this century. Although occupied
with portraiture for more than five decades, Dix painted his finest
works in this genre during the mid-1920s. The Cleveland Museum
is especially fortunate, then, not only to have secured one of the
artist's Neue Sachlichkeit paintings (many of which were destroyed
by the Nazis during their purges of so-called "degenerate art"),
but one of his more remarkable portraits.4 To understand its im
portance, it is essential that we examine this work against the
background of Dix's artistic development and within the context of
the Neue Sachlichkeit movement.
i. Early Life and Training: 1891-1914
The son of an ironworker, Dix was born in Untermhaus near Gera
in the Thuringian region of central Germany. From 1905 to 1909,
he served a four-year apprenticeship with a Dekorationsmaler
(house painter and decorator) in Gera. He spent the next five
years studying at a Kunstgewerbeschule (school for the applied
arts) in Dresden. Historian Fritz Loffler notes that Dix "received no
academic training" at this school, but rather, was "an essentially
self-taught artist."5 While a student in Dresden, Dix became in
terested in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and the art of
northern Renaissance masters, such as Hans Holbein the Younger
and Albrecht Durer. Dix's Self-Portrait with Carnation of 1912
(Figure 1), for example, appears to be based on Durer's Self
Portrait with Eryngium (Musee de Louvre, Paris).6
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Figure 1. Self-Portrait with Carnation. ' ^..*
Oil and tempera on panel, 73.66 x -...'. ....
49.53 cm., 1912. Otto Dix. Founders DIX .
Society, Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of r
Robert H. Tannahill, 51.65.
/:.
l i .
4Ij^
307
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Figure 2. Self-Portrait as Mars. Oil on
canvas, 81 x 66 cm., 1915. Otto Dix.
Haus der Heimat, Freital.
II. Expressionism: 1914-19
We had grown up in a material age, and in each one of us there
was a yearning for great experience, such as we had never known.
The war had entered into us like wine ... anything rather than stay
at home, anything to make us one with the rest....
-Ernst Junger7
In The Storm of Steel, From the Diary of a German Storm-Troop
Officer on the Western Front, the novelist Ernst Junger reflected on
his state of mind as the world was preparing for war in August
1914. Junger's enthusiasm for the war-his yearning for new ex
perience-echoed the thoughts of hundreds of thousands of other
young Europeans who volunteered eagerly that summer, then
marched away smiling, singing, often adorned with flowers. Dix
must have responded to the outbreak of war with similar emo
tions, because he enlisted immediately and was soon training as an
artilleryman and a machine-gunner.
The fervor of the volunteers was fired in part by a belief that the
war would transform society, and that from the destruction of the
old social structure there might emerge a new, more vital civiliza
tion-perhaps a utopian, classless state. The German playwright
Carl Zuckmayer, who also volunteered that summer, remembers
the spirit of the time:
We saw the meaning of the war in this inner liberation of the whole
nation from obsolete conventions, in this "breakthrough" into the
unknown . . . What animated the barracks and the encampments of
volunteers and recruits in 1914 was by no means a "militaristic"
spirit. It was revolutionary... Liberation from the pettiness and
narrowness of middle-class life, from school and cramming, from
doubts about the choice of a career, from everything which con
sciously or unconsciously we felt to be the stultification of our
world... 8
The war had an immediate and powerful effect on Dix's art. In
Self-Portrait as Mars of 1915 (Figure 2), for example, Dix abandon
ed the controlled, linear precision of his Self-Portrait with Carna
tion, along with its implied "rationality," for an essentially Expres
sionist style, characterized by savage brushwork, violent color,
fragmented space, and dismembered forms. Dix now depicts
himself as the ancient god of war, wearing a dark, antique-shaped
helmet. While bullet holes form stars on his epaulet and helmet,
exploding buildings, barbed wire, and screaming soldiers whirl
around his cadaverous face in an endless cycle of death, destruc
tion, and cosmic regeneration. Historian Diether Schmidt believes
that the star motif in this painting refers to the symbolic "dancing
star" in Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra:
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Figure 3. The Pregnant Woman. Oil on
canvas, 135 x 72 cm., 1919. Otto Dix.
Galerie Valentien, Stuttgart.
TT~ I ?~'
Both the notion of a cruel, Dionysian princ
tion, and rebirth, and the notion of a danci
Nietzsche. As Zarathustra said, one must ha
to be able to give birth to a dancing star.9
Historian Matthias Eberle commented furth
is not only the perpetrator of this destruction
but part of it. This warlord wills chaos beca
himself and because he sees it as an opportu
world. 10
Dix experienced trench warfare first hand, served on both the
Eastern and Western Fronts, and was wounded repeatedly at the
Battle of the Somme. He was still stationed in Flanders when news
of the Armistice arrived in November 1918.
Peace did not bring immediate changes in Dix's art. After return
ing to Dresden in early 1919, he continued to paint in an Expres
sionist style for about a year. His hallucinatory, emotionally charged
painting The Pregnant Woman of 1919 (Figure 3), for example, sug
gests a continued longing for primitive, mystical experience. By
1920, however, the exuberance of the war years had given way to
new emotions. Bitterly disillusioned by political and economic con
ditions in Germany, Dix's growing mood of anger and cynicism set
his art on a radically new course.
/ll. Die Neue Sachlichkeit: Origins and Definitions
Although the first two decades of the twentieth century were
dominated by radical avant-garde movements and bold experimen
tation in the arts, the 1920s witnessed a decided trend away from
abstraction and toward more conservative, representational styles.
In France, artists such as Pablo Picasso, Andre Derain, and
Fernand Leger explored variant modes of realism and neo
classicism; in America, Max Weber and Marsden Hartley
abandoned abstraction, while Charles Sheeler adopted a style of
meticulous realism called Precisionism; in Italy, the two dominant
art movements of the 1920s, Valori Plastici and Pittura Metafisici
(Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Carlo Carra), were also part
of this "return to the object" and to the imitation of nature.
Historians often attribute this "retrenchment" to a widely felt need
for a peaceful respite after the chaotic and emotionally draining
experiences of World War I.
The most extreme manifestation of this general trend toward
realism to emerge in the 1920s was Die Neue Sachlichkeit-a
movement confined to Germany and so strongly conditioned by
the socio-political climate of the postwar period in that country
that it can only be understood within a specific historical context.
The establishment of the Weimar Republic in 1919 raised
widespread expectations that a revolutionary transformation of
society, prophesied by many at the beginning of the war, might
309
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310
r. ~' . . .. ' ..
Figure 4. Dance Bar in Baden-Baden. Oil
on canvas, 108 x 66 cm., 1923. Max
Beckmann, German, 1884-1950.
Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen,
Munich.
.:: - .::
Figure 5. Studio Roof. Watercolor and
collage, 45.8 x 63.8 cm., 1920. Rudolf
Schlichter, German, 1890-1955. Galerie
Alvensleben, Munich.
finally be realized. Those hope
the political and economic tur
1919 to 1923, Germany was be
rampant unemployment, cond
of massive war reparations un
Germany fell behind in its pa
the Ruhr Valley and seized con
region. From 1919 to 1923, th
from 4.2 DM to the U.S. dollar
level of 4,200,000,000 DM to
tire lifesavings could be exhau
bread. While unemployment,
were becoming epidemic in th
noted that the poverty of the
with the wealth of war profit
Friedrich:
By the middle of 1923, the whole of Germany had become
delirious. Whoever had a job got paid every day, usually at noon,
and then ran to the nearest store, with a sackful of banknotes, to
buy anything he could get, at any price. In their frenzy, people paid
millions and even billions of marks for cuckoo clocks, shoes that
didn't fit, anything that could be traded for something else. 11
Such disastrous economic conditions naturally produced hostility
toward the new government. Faced with mounting opposition
from both left- and right-wing political groups, newly elected Presi
dent Friedrich Ebert (a Social Democrat) employed loose bands of
mercenaries, or Freikorps, to suppress riots and rebellions, such as
the Sparticus uprisings of 1919 in which opposition leaders Karl
Liebkneckt and Rosa Luxemburg were murdered. These events led
many to conclude that the new government was just as repressive
as the old Hohenzollern monarchy, and that the so-called "revolu
tion" of the Social Democrats was a fraud.
As early as 1920, a growing mood of cynicism and disillusion
ment among German intellectuals began to spark a reaction
against Expressionism in the arts. "No more about war, revolution
and the salvation of the world, "demanded Paul Kornfield, once
an Expressionist playwright. "Let us be modest and turn our atten
tion to other and smaller things."12 German artists responded by
recording the actual conditions of life in postwar society with a
new sense of sober, unsentimental detachment. They abandoned
the idealism, ecstasy, and subjectivism of Expressionism for a cold,
bitter, dry realism in which the world would no longer be "re
made" according to the fantasies of the artist, but simply
"reported." Among the artists associated with this new trend were:
Max Beckmann (Figure 4), Rudolf Schlichter (Figure 5), and Otto
Dix (Figures 7-10).
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Gustav Hartlaub, then director of the Mannheim Kunsthalle,
circulated a letter in 1923 announcing that he intended to organize
an exhibition documenting the recent trend toward realism in Ger
man art, for which he coined the term Die Neue Sachlichkeit. 13
Hartlaub observed that the movement:
related to the general contemporary feeling in Germany of resigna
tion and cynicism after a period of exuberant hopes (which had
found an outlet in Expressionism). Cynicism and resignation are the
negative side of the "Neue Sachlichkeit;" the positive side expresses
itself in the enthusiasm for immediate reality... 14
Other historians have since offered a variety of interpretations of
Die Neue Sachlichkeit. Fritz Schmalenbach, for example, described
it as:
A revolution in the general mental attitude of the times ... it was a
new disillusionment, a sobriety after the intoxication, the self
abandonment, the unrestrained and so to speak inflationary frenzy
of expressionism's latest, postwar phase [i.e., 1918-19] . . a radical
rejection of all emotional bias, a deliberately cultivated unsentimen
tality, so to speak. 15
In his study of Weimar culture, Peter Gay observed that:
Whatever its ultimate meaning-and that meaning differed from
artist to artist-in substance the Neue Sachlichkeit was a search for
reality, for a place to stand in the actual world .... It called for
realism in setting, accurate reportage, return to naturalistic speech,
and, if there had to be idealism, sober idealism. It was a movement
toward simplicity and clarity. ... 16
Franz Roh has established the following categories of contrasting
qualities that distinguish Neue Sachlichkeit from Expressionist art:
Expressionism
ecstatic subjects
suppression of the object
rhythmical
dynamic
loud
summary [form]
monumental
warm
thick color texture
rough
visibility of painting process
expressive deformation
Neue Sachlichkeit
sober subjects
the object clarified
representational
static
quiet
thorough [detailed]
miniature
cold
thin paint surface
smooth
effacement of painting process
external purification of the object17
311
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312
Figure 6. Prague Street. Oil on canvas
with collage, 100 x 80 cm., 1920. Otto
Dix. Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart, Otto Dix
Stiftung.
Figure 7. The Matchseller I. Oil on can
vas with collage, 141.5 x 166 cm., 1920.
Otto Dix. Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Inv.
Nr. L 772.
In his circular of 1923, Hartlaub also identified two separate
branches of Die Neue Sachlichkeit: (1) a "Veristic" left wing and
(2) a "Neoclassical," or conservative, right wing. The art of the
Verists is generally marked by strong social or political content; it
commonly employed satire and irony to attack the Weimar
government and the capitalist system (many Verists belonged to
radical left-wing political parties). The Verists were concentrated
largely in the industrial cities of the north, especially Berlin and
Dresden. Among the artists associated with this group are: Dix,
Beckmann, George Grosz, Georg Scholz, Rudolf Schlichter, Anton
Raderschmeidt, Christian Schad, and Otto Griebel.18 The conser
vative right wing of Die Neue Sachlichkeit, on the other hand,
whose art is sometimes referred to as "magic realism," preferred
traditional and nonpolitical subjects, such as landscape and still
life. Centered in Munich, this group included: Alexander Kanoldt,
Carlo Mense, and the Neoclassicist Georg Schrimpf.19
IV. Dix's Early Neue Sachlichkeit Paintings: 1920-23
Among the first artists to develop a Neue Sachlichkeit style, Dix
abandoned Expressionism around 1920 in order to paint the tangi
ble experience of everyday life. He recorded his observations of
postwar society with unsparing, brutal directness; few details
escaped his caustic eye. It soon became apparent, however, that
Dix was interested in more than just surface realism; emphasis was
44 .~,',~ '.: "~11.
s'qsti _._X| Ski..r ;i.
'X ;s E | | ^ t # I in.
1 L s_ F fi. y
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] *
Figure 8. Portrait of the Dermatologist
and Urologist Dr. Hans Koch. Oil on
canvas, 100.5 x 90 cm., 1921. Otto Dix.
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne.
placed on exploring class distinctions and the cynical, depressed
state of mind that characterized Weimar society. His early Neue
Sachlichkeit paintings seem inspired by a desire to expose the
underlying sociological/pyschological conflicts of the age. Historian
Brigid S. Barton comments:
Dix's work of these years is important in that it confronts many of
the most serious issues of the period. The themes of self-delusion,
corruption, violence, and inhumanity were central to German
history during the early years of the Republic ... he conveys to the
viewer much of the underlying discontent and conflict of these
years.20
The spirit of Die Neue Sachlichkeit is clearly evident in two col
lage paintings, Prague Street and The Matchseller I (Figures 6-7),
created by Dix in 1920. Stylistically, Prague Street (Figure 6) can be
considered a transitional work: strong garish hues, areas of im
pasto, and compressed spatial organization betray lingering traces
of Expressionism, as well as a brief flirtation with Dada in the use
of collage elements. It is really the subject, rather than the style,
that most clearly identifies this work as an early Neue Sachlichkeit
painting. On a fashionable street in Dresden, a crippled veteran
and a mutilated beggar are treated contemptuously by a snarling
dog and two figures who disappear beyond the left and right edges
of the picture. An anti-Semitic leaflet in the lower left warns the
beggar to "Get Out." In the background, artificial limbs are of
fered for sale but kept out of the reach of the poor behind glass
windows. In The Matchseller I (Figure 7), three figures dressed in
expensive clothes turn their backs and flee from a blind beggar
with amputated legs, while a dog urinates on him. Such scenes
may not have been imagined by Dix, as his friend and fellow artist
George Grosz observed:
Real or fake war casualties were sitting at every street corner. Some
of them sat there dozing until somebody came by, then they would
twist their heads and start convulsive shaking. Shakers, we called
them. "Look Ma, there's another one of those funny shakers." We
had become quite immune to all the weird and disgusting sights.21
Paintings such as Prague Street and The Matchseller I mark the
emergence of a new spirit in Dix's art: they concentrate, not on
the heroes or the experience of war, but on its victims, while
informing us of the artist's growing revulsion at society's indif
ference to human suffering.
Dix's early Neue Sachlichkeit paintings seem inspired by a desire
to investigate the moral condition of his age, as they deal with
such themes as social injustice, the impoverishment of the middle
class, militarism, degenerate sexuality, prostitution, crime, and the
dehumanizing effects of technology. In his Portrait of the Der
matologist and Urologist Dr. Hans Koch of 1921 (Figure 8), for ex
ample, Dix offered an especially caustic view of science and
313
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Figure 9. The Salon II. Oil on canvas,
1921. Otto Dix. Now missing.
,,&..- v , ..,
.' N... ... ...
Figure 10. Marlene Dietrich and Emil
Jannings in The Blue Angel. A film by
Josef von Sternberg, 1931. Museum of
Modern Art, New York, Film Ar
Figure 11. A Sunday Walk. Oil on can
vas, 1922. Otto Dix. Now missing.
Photograph courtesy of the Otto Dix
Archiv, Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
Figure 12. Greta Grabo and Valeska
Gert in The oyless Street A film
W. Pabst, 1925. Museum of Modern
Art, New York, Film Archive.
Art, Ne ok imAcie
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technology: here, the instruments of modern medicine seem
designed, not to save mankind, but to satisfy sadistic desires. The
Salon II of 1921 (Figure 9) and A Sunday Walk of 1922 (Figure 11),
on the other hand, are concerned with the moral and ethical
degeneration of the middle class. Similar themes, which had been
pioneered by Dix in the early 1920s, were later explored in such
Neue Sachlichkeit films as Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel
(Figure 10) and G. W. Pabst's The Joyless Street (Figure 12).
Nor did Dix exclude himself from this critical examination of
postwar society. In Sex Murderer (Self-Portrait) of 1920 (Figure 13),
for example, he seems to indict himself as a co-participant in the
prevailing decadence and corruption of the era. On a psycho
logical level, this gruesome painting seems to express a feeling that
the world has become a place of lawlessness and unreason,
governed by chaotic impulses and psychotic tyrants. It is typical of
Dix's art that the meaning of this painting resides partly in its
sociological context: it can be related to the tremendous popular
interest in the topic of sex crimes (Grosz and Schlichter also
created images of the Lustmord), several actual cases of which
were sensationalized in contemporary newspaper accounts.22 The
theme of the psychotic killer was also explored in several German
films of the period, such as Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz's The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari of 1923, and Fritz Lang's M (Murderer
Among Us) of 1930. Barton offers insight into the meaning of such
themes in Dix's art:
Figure 13. Sex Murderer (Self-Portrait). '
Oil on canvas, 170 x 120 cm., 1920. :-,
Otto Dix. Now missing. Photograph
courtesy of the Otto Dix Archiv,
Schaffhausen, Switzerland. _'" ',,1
',J
' ~ ? '.~.:I'~;~!~':. ..
315
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316 Figure 14. The Prisoner. Lithograph, ' 'P, X ' ' !
25.3 x 20.4 cm.ha 1920. Georgt e naGrosz, sciey to itsGerman, 1893-1959. Gift of The Printacy
Club of Cleveland em c tr. ACMA 31.267k ws m t t e b aM . .........
Figure 15. e lii i i i i i ito a
Watercolor and cardboard, 60 x 47.3 __ __
232cm 0c., 1920. George Grosz, German,
1893-1 bausMuseum of theModernso
matter, Dix rarely used his art to support any
.:.ii'--'
j-]Scenes of brothels, murdgoversnment and thwarfare apitalillustra system. In The Prist'soner
t he ft to be te t ngure 1an Republican Automatonse p saticri zedp
e eimar iali or maint g andning w t crnonsidered to be aandpressive, police state. Ge rosz had also aean to exhibit bot a le
Around 1920 for a more detachedork, Adv"realistic" style (he Fueven signed.Republican Autoates wit the aV ruer staraa inrac ofde to sh that
mws an arent Cmmunist who us his oon aze and mehanizea to d erss
capite eima oemet e .2caiist syste n e so
the Weimar Socialists for maintaining what he co considered to beu ancy
and thematpublican Atrutomh. An artwork with a rubber stamp) in order to show thclear
mantrue corruption andme de-pgenersonalized and "mechanized" under.
the Weimar government and th capitalism26t system. In The Prisoner
capitalism .26
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Figure 16. Young Woman before a Mir
ror. Oil on canvas, 20 x 15.5 cm., 1921.
Otto Dix. Destroyed. Photograph
Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
? ..
des Panneaux de Sterzing. Mus de
L'Oeuvre Notre Dame de Strasbourg, Ee , .
Strasbourg. f a
While Grosz direct
.... ;~' interested in
'Bit:"^ ..i Iovestigating the dark side of human nature and man's capacity to
: plLv Pr.asuccumb to folly and evil.27 At times, Dix even assumed the role
of the northern "moralizer," following in the tradition of
Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Dix's Young
Woman before a Mirror of 1921 (Figure 16), for example, descends
from traditional vanitas images and is only slightly more grotesque
than a fifteenth-century German panel painting depicting a blissful
bridal couple on the front, while revealing a shocking prophecy of
their ultimate fate on the reverse (Figure 19).28 Even The Match
seller I, which seems to derive from Dix's immediate observations
of postwar society, has a precedent in Bruegel's painting titled
Cripples (Musee de Louvre, Paris). Many other examples could be
cited here of Dix's strong ties to the northern tradition.
317
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318
V. Dix's Neue Sachlichkeit Portraits
If I were to say in a few words what will remain of Dix, I would
name in the first place, the portraits...
-Will Grohmann29
The moderns of today regard portrait-painting as a subordinate ac
tivity: nonetheless, it is one of the most exacting and difficult tasks a
painter can undertake ... with us Germans everything we paint is
a portrait in any case.
-Otto Dix30
While the twentieth-century has produced few great portraitists,
Dix made portraiture central to his investigation of the human con
dition and the nature of the modern age. From his early Sister Toni
by a Window of 1908, painted while still a student in Gera, to his
late Mrs. Rosennast of 1969, Dix may have executed more than
two hundred portraits, or portrait subjects, many of extraordinary
power and originality.31
Dix's early Neue Sachlichkeit portraits-such as The Old Worker
of 1920 (Figure 18) and Portrait of The Artist's Parents I of 1921
(Figure 19)-tend to emphasize class distinctions and the dreariness
of life during the early years of the Weimar Republic. Most of
these portraits depict friends or fellow artists; Loffler and Barton
note that such paintings were probably not commissioned.32
Toward 1924-25, striking changes began to occur in Dix's por
traits that can be linked both to events in the artist's personal life
and to changing political conditions in Germany. One such event
was the implementation of the Dawes Plan in 1924, which initiated
a brief period of economic and political stability lasting until the
world financial collapse of 1929. During this period (1924-29), liv
ing conditions in Germany improved vastly and large numbers of
people, including many in the middle class, could afford to pur
chase works of art. Consequently, Dix began to paint more and
more portraits on commission, and often for a more prosperous
clientele. His relationship with his new patrons tended to be less
personal than it was during his early Neue Sachlichkeit period.
These changing conditions certainly contributed to the shift in em
phasis from concern with social commentary, which dominates
Dix's portraits of the early 1920s, to the greater interest in explor
ing the individual personality of his sitters, which characterizes his
portraits of the later 1920s.33
This was also a decade of increasing personal prosperity and
happiness for Dix. After moving to Dusseldorf in 1922, he married
Martha Lindner, and the couple's first child-a daughter named
Nelly-was born in 1924. Dix then spent two years in Berlin
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Figure 18. The Old Worker. Oil on
panel, 76 x 47.5 cm., 1920. Otto Dix.
Haus der Heimat, Freital.
Figure 19. Portrait of the Artist's Parents
I. Oil on canvas, 101 x 115 cm., 1921.
Otto Dix. Offentliche Kunstsammlung
Basel, Kunstmuseum.
(1925-27), where he acquired a considerable reputation as a por
traitist. Finally, he accepted a teaching position at the Dresden
Academy in 1927, which gave him a secure income for the next
six years. All of these factors seem to have contributed to the
generally more sanguine tone of Dix's portraits of the mid- to later
1920s.
Around 1925, Dix also began to employ new techniques that
significantly altered his portrait style. In particular, he abandoned
all traces of collage and alla prima brushwork for a laborious
method (which he claimed was based on the methods of the old
masters) of applying numerous thin, transparent glazes of tempera
and oil applied over gesso grounds and wood panel supports.
These new techniques produced a style of pristine clarity, brilliant
hues, smooth surfaces, and extreme linear precision (even more so
than in Dix's early Neue Sachlichkeit paintings). Scholars have
often attributed these changes to the influence of Durer and
Philipp Otto Runge, as well as to the influence of the mannerist
portraits of Agnolo Bronzino and Jacopo Pontormo that Dix saw
on a trip to Italy in 1925.34 New ideas about the sources of this
change in Dix's technique, however, are presented by Bruce Miller
in the following article.
If one compares Dix's Portrait of the Artist's Parents I of 1921
(Figure 19) with his The Artist's Parents II, painted in 1924 (Figure
20), it becomes apparent that subtle changes began to appear in
the artist's style nearly a year before his trip to Italy. The mood of
iSf I _-1_ a_ I, il. i S~f~l~
,??
319
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320
925.~ii~?~!r. ~ ;xF O Dix Ott D S
Figure 20. The Artist's Parents II. Oil on . Ai
canvas, 118 x 130.5 cm., 1924. Otto
Dix. Sprengel Museum, Hannover.
*o
Figure 21. The Dancer Anita Berber. 't ~ " ;
Tempera and plywood, 120 x 65 cm., l i
1925. Otto Dix. Otto Dix Stiftung,
Vaduz, Switerzland.
the first portrait is dreary and oppressive. Illumin
dramatic light, his parents are seated on an old co
bare wall. Forms are pushed forward in space by
the lower left. While the rolled-up shirtsleeves an
M jI? l 1of his parents point to their proletarian social
__^1|^^ ^I^setting speaks of their depressed psychologi
trait, on the other hand, is filled with bright, ch
lively, linear patterns: distortions of space and an
used for comic effect. Dix thus replaced the inten
harsh social commentary of the early portrait wi
decorative patterns and light-hearted humor in th
In the fall of 1925, Dix moved to Berlin, where
of his finest portraits. Still the center of German
*" ,i ? liP political power, of commerce and the national film industry, Berlin
:: *'in the 1920s was a city teeming with exotic personalities. The
** '%: -~ l l depressed value of the mark and the collapse of social conventions
_*~ 4k ' ^ ' l had transformed the old Prussian city into a mecca for interna
tional travelers and adventurers of all sorts. "Berlin had become a
1 Al:B 5s. ~ ~ I kind of bazaar," wrote Marc Chagall, "where everyone comingand going between Moscow and the West met.... You felt as
though you were living in a dream and, at times, a nightmare."35
This was also a city of vast contrasts: of both bohemian and "of
; . r:':' .'ficial" culture, of wealthy industrialists and immense poverty, of_ . : .???? ;- d ......v
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international banking and experimental theater, of great scientists
(Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Max Planck) and the decadent
cabarets romanticized in the novels of Christopher Isherwood.
During his two years in Berlin (1925-27), Dix was besieged with
requests for portraits. He painted exotic dancers, journalists, art
dealers, photographers, doctors, industrialists, wealthy financiers,
merchants, lawyers, politicians, fellow artists, and the bohemians
who frequented the infamous Romanische Cafe (Figures 21-28).
Dix's Berlin portraits provide remarkable insights into the per
sonalities that made up this cynical, dispirited society. Anita
Berber, for example, the subject of one of Dix's most famous por
traits (Figure 21), was an exotic dancer and a notorious under
world figure, a lesbian who married several times and suffered
from tuberculosis, alcoholism, and heroin addiction (she died at
age twenty-nine of a drug overdose).36 Dix has appropriately por
trayed her in a dazzling scarlet dress that clings tenaciously to her
sinuous body; menacing nails sprout from her clawlike hands; her
puckered face is punctuated by ruby-red lips and two dark,
languid eyes lying beneath flaming orange hair. In Dix's portrait,
Berber seems part serpent, part corpse-a symbol of the nihilistic,
self-destructive impulses of the age.
The journalist Sylvia von Harden, the subject of Dix's best
known Berlin portrait (Figure 22), wrote for Die Rote Erde and was
known as both a "morbid character" and "the terror of the mid
dle class."37 Dix consequently painted her with yellow teeth and
Figure 22. Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia
von Harden. Mixed media on wood, ' .. ' .. .'
120 x 88 cm., 1926. Otto Dix. Centre i " " .'
national d'art et de culture Georges
Pompidou, Paris.
40~~~~~~~~ ,,-'...
321
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322
in strident blood-red and black tones that convey something of her
combative, predatory personality. "Every person," Dix once
observed,
has his own quite specific color which affects the whole picture.
The nature of every person expresses itself in his exterior. The ex
terior is the expression of the interior, that is the outside and inside
are identical. This goes so far that even the folds of the dress, the
person's bearing, his ears immediately afford the painter information
about the model's soul-the last more than the eyes or mouth.38
In this particular portrait, von Harden's monocle, shapeless body,
affected gestures, and even the "von" of her surname-can be in
terpreted as references to the debauched state of the former
aristocracy and to the sexual amorality of the era.39
Dix reserved some of his most pungent satire for his portrait of
Albert Flechtheim (Figure 23), an influential art dealer who believed
the French Cubists were the greatest modern artists and privately
derided Dix as a "fart painter."40 Dix returned the compliment
Figure 23. The Art Dealer Alfred
Flechtheim. Mixed media on wood, 120
x 80 cm., 1926. Otto Dix. Staatliche
Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Nationalgalerie, Berlin (West). I:
4.? . . .': . ...
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Figure 24. Portrait of the Photographer .. ... . ......and Art Dealer Hugo Erfurth. Tempera
on wood, 75 x 60 cm., 1926. Otto Dix. ' . o
Staatsgalerie moderner Kunst, Sofie-und . ri Ad z
Emanuel-Fohn Schenkung, Munich. l'_ _ ..
here by painting Flechtheim with spiderlike fingers, hunched
shoulders, a rat-like face, enormous ears, sickly yellow skin, and
greedy myopic eyes (perhaps a pun on Flechtheim's "short
sightedness"). In a gesture of supreme irony, Dix signed the Cubist
painting hanging on the wall directly behind Flechtheim with his
own name. Loffler notes that, despite the satirical tone of this por
trait, "Flechtheim's only reaction . . had been to criticize Dix for
dressing him in an unfashionable jacket."41
Not all Dix's sitters were so imperceptive (or ironic!). It has been
reported, for example, that the Oberburgermeister (mayor) of
Dresden "refused to allow Dix's portrait of him to be hung in the
Rathaus [city hall]," and when Dix gave the banker Kurt Arnoldt
his portrait, Arnoldt silently set the painting face down on the
floor.42
We may assume that Dix's distortions of color and form, often
used to caricature his sitters, were quite deliberate, because he did
not always depict his sitters so unfavorably. It is instructive in this
regard to compare Dix's portrait of Flechtheim with his Portrait of
the Photographer and Art Dealer Hugo Erfurth (Figure 24). In the
latter, Erfurth delicately holds a camera lens as a Renaissance
scholar might have held a globe or a scientific instrument in a
sixteenth-century painting by Holbein or Durer, thus suggesting
that Erfurth is a sensitive, intelligent man. Both Flechtheim and
Erfurth sold works of art, but Dix clearly had far more respect for
Erfurth and consequently portrayed him in a sympathetic manner.
323
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324 Figure 25. Portrait of Dr. Mayer
Hermann. Oil and tempera on wood,
149.2 x 99.1 cm., 1926. Otto Dix. Col- a otl.
lection, Museum of Modern Art, New s
York, Gift of Philip Johnson, 3.32. o s M
character of the Somet w imes, as in s ortat ofetheigh
| W I'd v r~~~~~~~~~~~.. . ......
en durtin. his eue Sac eit or "reai" period i n
Dix's Portrait of Josef May distort forms- psometimesd to grotesque
proportions- in orderit two intensify and exaggerat the essential
character of his sitters. Sometimes, as in his portra it of the a
.laryngologist Dr. Mayer-Hermann of 1926 (Figure 25), these dis
tio es employed for coic effect. t other, te, as in te pr
trait of Flechtheim, Dii relentlessly stripped his sitters of self
n portraits of Sylvia von Harden its orea Berberi e and Albert
Flechtheim, which are generally ranked among Dix's finest work
and certainly his greatest portraits. Primary evidence for dating
Dixr's Portrait of Josef May to 1926 is provided by the object itself
which is signed with the artist's monogram OD and dated 1926 in
the lower right of the image. On the back of the plywood panel
there is another inscription that reads: Josef May Aus
DdTsseldorfGemalt von 0. Dix 1926 (Josef May from DMasseldorf/
Painted by 0. Dix 1926). In addition to these inscriptions, the sty
of the portrait (a detailed analysis of the physical materials and
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techniques used to create this painting can be found in the article
by Bruce Miller that follows) are thoroughly consistent with Dix's
Neue Sachlichkeit portraits of the mid-1920s.
It can be established through several sources that Josef May was
a grain merchant, born in Arnsberg, Westphalia, but living in
Dusseldorf at the time the portrait was painted. According to ar
chives in Dusseldorf, May was employed with the commodities
firm of J. Grunberg, headquartered in that city.43 During his youth,
May had wanted to become an opera singer, but for practical
reasons entered into an apprenticeship with a local branch of the
Grunberg grain company in Arnsberg.44 When Grunberg senior
retired in 1924, May was promoted to head of the Dusseldorf
branch, giving him effective control over the entire company.
Documents of the Dusseldorf Amtsgericht indicate that May had
taken up residence in that city by at least the summer of 1924.
May was also related by marriage to Hugo Simons (1892-1958), a
lawyer from Dusseldorf who was friendly with Dix. In fact, Dix had
painted Simons' portrait in 1925 (Figure 26). According to Simons'
daughter, Ellyn Duschenes, her father then arranged for Dix to
paint a portrait of his brother-in-law, Joseph May.45 Simons' wife
believes that that portrait was painted in Dusseldorf, and it is
known that Dix made brief visits to that city during his Berlin
period.46
Figure 26. Portrait of Hugo Simons.
Tempera and oil on panel, 97.5 x 67.5
cm., 1925. Otto Dix. Private collection,
Montreal.
z~~~~~~~~~~~~P~i! | a_!. nol go| |
325
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326 Figure 27. Portrait of Josef May (see also
Cover).
l. _
Dix painted May (Fi
"objectivity" that ch
traits. The drooping
his deep-furrowed b
all rendered in extr
attention has been g
beneath the skin of
forearms, and to th
fine lines delineate
frozen and static, as
establish the contou
overly energetic; th
bornly refusing to l
And May's lilliputian
his large, imposing
around his bullish n
_ .
_~~~~~~~~~~~~
_ ''~j-'
_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
| _~~~~~~~~~~.i
Di panea Fgr 7 ih h aedy ipsint
"ojciiy tha chrceie i ietNu ahihetpr
trais.Tedopnfacdsihis deep-f ur oedbo,tinnn hairan subymosacer
al eneedi etaodnriymeiulu dti. Eqully laorosn
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Figure 28. Self-Portrait. Oil on panel, 52
x 41 cm., 1498. Albrecht Durer, Ger
man, 1471-1528. Museo del Prado,
Madrid.
77!
Figure 29. The Merchant Georg Gisze.
Oil on panel, 96 x 84 cm., 1532.
Hans Holbein the Younger, German,
1497/8-1543. Staatliche Museen
Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin.
observed Schmied, "that fails to suggest someth
rific, even in details normally taken for granted
posture or the position of the hands . . . behind
veneer Dix shows us the animal vitality of hum
Dix's Portrait of Josef May is filled with subtle
sion. May stares toward our left, but at nothing
eyes seem uncoordinated: while the left looks up
intent, the right looks lazily ahead. The tension
May's gaze are reinforced by the taut lines of hi
jaw, gnarled hands, wiry contours, and the obse
details throughout the entire picture. As his low
ward, the poisonous yellows of his skin clash wi
the background. By exaggerating the proportion
large head and ears, as opposed to the compre
so, Dix made the sitter appear awkwardly squeez
compartment of clashing hues: garish greens, r
and mustard yellows.
Although Dix may have imitated the style of R
traits, the mood and "meaning" of his Portrait
tirely different from that of Durer's Self-Portrait
or Hans Holbein the Younger's Portrait of the M
Grisze of 1532 (Figure 29). Instead of staring bla
Durer engages us confidently in his portrait with
gaze. He appears to command his environment
bolically by the landscape in the upper right, as
Renaissance view that man exists at the center o
chical universe, which he dominates by virtue o
tellect. In the Holbein portrait, Grisze is surrou
wealth and knowledge, which function as exte
reason and attest to the artist's faith in man's ab
understand the world. May, on the other hand,
textual relationships. Clutched tightly by the te
chair like the prey of some predatory animal, M
Kafkaesque figure of modern alienation and anx
world he can neither understand nor control.
Although "realistic," Dix's Neue Sachlichkeit
entirely different meaning from that of Durer's
draftsmanship and its implied "rationality." It i
revolt against the painterly tradition that domin
the early twentieth century and its correspondin
the individual. Instead, Dix's cold, hard, meticul
often revels in hideous and grotesque details,
physical facts above human concerns. By giving
all elements-i.e., treating both animate and in
327
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328
with the same relentless, machine-like objectivity, Dix's portraits
suggest an absence of ordering and values, as if the product of a
deliberately dispassionate, anti-aesthetic attitude. Moreover, Dix's
Neue Sachlichkeit style implies a denial of sensuality and freedom,
as if a metaphor for the repression of the individual by bourgeois
values and authority. "The New Objectivity," observed Matthias
Eberle, "mistrusted primal force as much as mechanical power."48
Dix was clearly interested in more than the imitation of nature.
In a sense, it is misleading to label his style "realistic" because of
the way he intentionally exaggerated and distorted form. Although
not illusionistic, Dix's portraits are characterized by a profound
psychological realism. His sitters often stand or sit uncomfortably,
their bodies sometimes twisted, contorted, and squeezed into
tight, constricted spaces. Illogically shifting viewpoints generate
disconcerting spatial tensions. Yet, in spite of their discomfort,
Dix's sitters seem frozen in static poses and constrained by the art
ist's hard, unyielding outlines, as if trapped in a hostile world that
remains indifferent to human suffering. Moreover, the colors,
gestures, and poses that Dix selected for his models often convey
symbolic meaning. "Photography," Dix observed,
can only record a moment, and that only superficially, but it cannot
delineate specific, individual form, something that depends upon
the imaginative power and intuition of the painter. A hundred
photographs of a person would only result in a hundred different
momentary aspects, but never capture the phenomenon as a
whole.49
In his Neue Sachlichkeit portraits, Dix examined his contem
poraries with brutal honesty, often exposing their inner ugliness, as
well as the demoralizing, corrupting effect of their environment on
the human spirit. He intensifies our psychological experience of
each individual sitter, revealing through his portraits the tragedy,
the confusion, and the horror of a particular time and place. In his
attempt to investigate the moral climate of his age by studying the
individual, Dix's portraits invite comparison with the novels of
Thomas Mann and the photographs of August Sander. Like
playwright Bertolt Brecht, Dix used satire and irony to expose
human weakness and to condemn the false values of the era. Like
novelists Alfred Dbblin and Franz Kafka, Dix explored the anxiety
and alienation that permeated postwar society. In their own uni
que and powerful way, Dix's Neue Sachlichkeit portraits refer to
the absurdity of the human condition in a world in which value
systems have collapsed, in which man feels alone and abandoned.
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VII. Dix and May, Targets of the Third Reich
Although severely damaged by the world economic collapse of
1929, the Weimar Republic staggered on until 1933, when Adolf
Hitler and the National Socialists seized control of the Reichstag
and suspended the German constitution. From that moment on,
both Dix and May became targets of Nazi persecution.
In 1933, Dix was abruptly dismissed from his position as pro
fessor of art at the Dresden Academy, where he had been
employed since 1927. The following year, he was declared a
"degenerate" artist and forbidden to either teach or exhibit.50 Two
hundred and sixty of his works were removed from museums and
galleries; many of them were burned.51 Dix then went into semi
seclusion in the Alps of Southern Germany, but remained under
the watchful eye of the Gestapo. After the war, he adopted an Ex
pressionist style, joined the art faculty of the Dusseldorf Academy,
and continued to paint until shortly before his death in 1969.
As a Jew, Josef May fled with his family to Holland in 1933, as
did the Simons family. In 1938, Josef May died of a heart attack
while traveling on a train from Rotterdam to the Hague.52 Simons
then arranged for May's family to emigrate to the United States. A
short time later, Simons made his way to Montreal. After the war,
the May family gave Dix's Portrait of Josef May to Simons in
gratitude for helping them escape from Europe, and the painting
remained in Montreal until acquired by the Cleveland Museum.
William H. Robinson
Curatorial Assistant, Modern Art
329
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330
The author wishes to thank the follow
ing people and institutions for their
assistance with this article:
Ellyn Duschenes, for offering informa
tion about Josef May and Hugo Simons;
The Landeshauptstadt and Amtsgericht
of Dusseldorf for providing photocopies
of documents concerning Josef May;
Hannelore Osborne for her careful
transcriptions and translations of some
difficult, hand-written German texts;
Edward B. Henning and Harvey
Buchanan for their patient reading and
criticisms of the text; Georgina Gy. Toth
and the staff of the Ingalls Library of The
Cleveland Museum of Art for their
research assistance.
Many others must be thanked for
answering inquires about Dix and for
providing often difficult to locate
photographs: The Otto Dix Archiv,
Schaffhausen, Switzerland; Florian
Karsch of the Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin;
Viola Roehr-V. Alvensleben of the
Galerie Alvenslever, Munich; the
Galerie Valentien, Stuttgart; the Wallraf
Richartz-Museum, Cologne; La Musee
de I'Oeuvre Notre Dame de Strasbourg;
the Wechel-Ausstellungen des Basler
Kunstvereins, Basel; the Sprengel
Museums, Hannover; the Staatsliche
Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin; the Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen, Dresden; the Haus
der Heimat, Freital.
1 .CMA 85.40 Portrait of Josef May, mixed
media on plywood, 84 x 68.3 cm.,
1926. Otto Dix, German, 1891-1969.
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund. Ex
collections: Ghitta Caiserman-Roth,
Montreal, Canada; Ellyn Duschenes,
Montreal, Canada; Hugo Simons, Mon
treal, Canada; Josef May and family,
Dusseldorf.
Publications: Fritz Lbffler, Otto Dix,
1891-1969: Oeuvre der Cemalde (Reck
linghausen, Federal Republic of Ger
many, 1981), listed under "1926": as
no. 13.
Exhibitions: The Cleveland Museum of
Art, 1986: The Year in Review for 1985
(cat., CMA Bulletin, 73 [February
1986]), no. 97, repr. p. 56.
2. The term Die Neue Sachlichkeit was
coined by Gustav Hartlaub, formerly
Director of the Mannheim Art Gallery,
when he circulated a letter in 1923 an
nouncing his intention of organizing an
exhibition under this title. See Fritz
Schmalenbach, "The Term Neue
Sachlichkeit," Art Bulletin, 22 (1940),
161-65.
3. Wieland Schmied, "Neue
Sachlichkeit and the German Realism of
the Twenties," in Neue Sachlichkeit and
German Realism of the Twenties (Lon
don, 1978), p. 25.
4. The history of the Exhibitions and the
destruction of so-called "degenerate"
art has been documented by Franz Roh,
"Entartete" Kunst: Kunstbarbarei im
Dritten Reich (Hannover, 1962).
5. Fritz Lbffler, Otto Dix: Life and Work,
trans. R. J. Hollingdale (New York,
1982), pp. 11-12.
6. Brigid S. Barton, Otto Dix and Die
neue Sachlichkeit, 1918-1925 (Ann
Arbor, Ml, 1977), p. 14
7. Ernst Junger, The Storm of Steel, From
the Diary of a German Storm-Troop Of
ficer on the Western Front (London,
1929), p. 9.
8. Carl Zuckmayer, A Part of Myself,
trans. Richard and Clara Winston (New
York, 1966), p. 148. Emphasis mine.
9. Quoted in Peter Gay, Weimar
Culture: The Outsider as Insider (Lon
don, 1968), p. 24.
10. Matthias Eberle, World War I and
the Weimar Artists, trans. John Gabriel
(New Haven, CT, 1985), p. 5.
11. Otto Friedrich, Before the Deluge, A
Portrait of Berlin in the 1920's (New
York, 1972), p. 139.
12. Quoted in Gay, Weimar Culture, p.
121.
13. Because Hartlaub had difficulty
securing loans, the exhibition was not
held until 1925.
14. Gustav Hartlaub to Alfred H. Barr,
Jr., July 8, 1929, as quoted by Alfred H.
Barr, Jr., in "Otto Dix," Arts, 17
(February 1931), 237. Emphasis mine.
15. Schmalenbach, "Term Neue
Sachlichkeit," pp. 163-64.
16. Gay, Weimar Culture, p. 122.
17. Franz Roh, German Art in the 20th
Century, with additions by Juliane Roh,
trans. Catherine Hutter (Greenwich, CT,
1968), pp. 112-17. I have slightly ap
pended and edited Roh's list here.
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18. Strong ties also existed between ear
ly Neue Sachlichkeit Verism and Berlin
Dada: certain artists, such as Grosz and
Schlichter, are considered members of
both movements. The subject of the
relationship between Verism and Dada,
however, is beyond the purview of this
discussion.
19. Since Hartlaub first proposed his
two-part division of Die Neue
Sachlichkeit, historians have identified at
least three other sub-groups within the
movement: (1) the Rousseau Schule or
the naive realists of Hannover (Greta
Overbeck, Ernst Thoma, Grethe Jurgens,
Hans Meitens); (2) the Gruppe pro
gressiver Kunstler of Cologne (Heinrich
Hoerle, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Otto
Freundlich); and (3) the "utopian
realism" of Oskar Schlemmer (Weimar,
Dessau Bauhaus). For a discussion of
these subgroups see: Schmied, "New
Sachlichkeit and German Realism," pp.
9-10; Barton, Otto Dix and Die neue
Sachlichkeit, pp. 61-76; and Roh, Ger
man Art in the 20th Century, pp.
112-17.
20. Barton, Otto Dix and Die neue
Sachlichkeit, p. 60.
21. George Grosz, George Grosz, An
Autobiography, trans. Nora Hodges
(New York, 1983), p. 122.
22. Barton has cited Grosz's Lustmord in
der Ackerstrasse of 1923 and Schlichter's
Das Ende and Lyncher of ca. 1919-20 as
examples of the use of the Lustmord
theme by these artists. See Barton, Otto
Dix and Die neue Sachlichkeit, p. 21.
23. Barton, Otto Dix and Die neue
Sachlichkeit, p. 35.
24. Ibid., pp. 79-81.
25. One exception is Max Beckmann,
whose paintings are more concerned
with investigating the moral bankruptcy
of the modern age than with supporting
any specific political ideology.
26. Quoted in John Willett, Art and
Politics in the Weimar Period: The New
Sobriety, 1917-1933 (New York, 1978),
p. 85.
27. Barton, Otto Dix and Die neue
Sachlichkeit, pp. 80-81.
28. At some point, the panel on which
these two works were painted-one on
the front and the other on the back-was
cut or divided, and the two works are
now in different collections: Strasbourg
and Cleveland. For CMA 32.179 A Bridal
Pair, panel (fir), 64.7 x 39.5 cm. Anony
mous South German Master, Upper Rhine
region, ca. 1470. Delia E. and L. E.
Holden Funds. See European Paintings
Before 1500, The Cleveland Museum of
Art Catalogue of Paintings, pt. 1 (Cleve
land, 1974), no. 12, pp. 34-36.
29. Quoted in Linda F. McGreevy, The
Life and Works of Otto Dix: German
Critical Realist (Ann Arbor, Ml, 1987),
p. 69.
30. Quoted in Loffler, Otto Dix: Life and
Work, p. 58.
31. Fritz Lbffler's catalogue raisonne,
Otto Dix, 1891-1969: Oeuvre Der
Cemalde (Recklinghausen, 1981), was
used as the basic source for this statistic.
The exact number of portraits is difficult
to determine because it is not always
clear whether a painting represents a
portrait of a specific individual. For ex
ample, Dix painted numerous images of
his children, some of which can clearly
be called "portraits," while others are
simply genre images of babies and
children.
32. Loffler, Otto Dix: Life and Work, pp.
28-29; Barton, Otto Dix and Die neue
Sachlichkeit, p. 58.
33. Barton, Otto Dix and Die neue
Sachlichkeit, pp. 27, 57-58.
34. Loffler, Otto Dix: Life and Work, p.
58. McGreevy has dated this trip to
1924 (The Life and Works of Otto Dix,
p. 64), and Barton (Otto Dix and Die
neue Sachlichkeit, p. 28) mentions visits
to Italy in 1923-24. Yet, Dix's style (as
discussed in the following paragraph)
did not begin to change until 1924, and
it was not until 1925 that he began us
ing the tempera and oil technique. See
the following article in this issue of the
Bulletin, by Bruce Miller, for details
about this change in Dix's technique
and its sources.
35. Quoted in Jean-Paul Crespell,
Chagall, trans. Benita Eisler (New York,
1970), p. 154.
36. McGreevy, The Life and Works of
Otto Dix, p. 69; and Lothar von Fischer,
Otto Dix: Ein Malerleben in Deutsch
land (Berlin, 1981), pp. 59-63.
37. Lbffler, Otto Dix: Life and Work, p.
73. For further discussion of this portrait
see von Fischer, Otto Dix: Ein Maler
leben in Deutschland, pp. 71-74.
38. Quoted in Loffler, Otto Dix: Life and
Work, pp. 74-75.
39. McGreevy, The Life and Works of
Otto Dix, p. 71.
40. Eberle, World War I and the Weimar
Artists, p. 50.
41. Lbffler, Otto Dix: Life and Work, p.
74. On the other hand, Loffler notes
that Sylvia von Harden loved her por
trait (ibid.). Eberle reports that it is not
known if the Flechtheim portrait was
commissioned (World War I and the
Weimar Artists, p. 50).
42. Loffler, Otto Dix: Life and Work,
p. 56.
43. Photocopies of archival documents
relating to Josef May where obtained
from the Amtsgericht of Dusseldorf.
44. I am most grateful to Ellyn
Duschenes, the daughter of Hugo
Simons, for providing information about
Josef May and the Simons family.
45. Ellyn Duschenes to the author, June
10, 1986. May was married to the sister
of Simons first wife.
46. Telephone conversation with
Duschenes, September 11, 1987.
47. Schmied, "Neue Sachlichkeit and
German Realism," p. 29.
48. Eberle, World War I and the Weimar
Artists, p. 15.
49. Quoted in Eberle, World War I and
the Weimar Artists, p. 46.
50. The Nazis had three levels of pro
scription for artists: Lehrverbot,
Austellungsverbot, and Mahlverbot.
Only the first two were applied to Dix,
meaning he was forbidden to either
teach or exhibit, but was allowed to
continue painting for private patrons.
See McGreevy, The Life and Works of
Otto Dix, p. 35.
51. Lbffler, Otto Dix: Life and Work, p.
96; and McGreevy, The Life and Works
of Otto Dix, pp. 87-88.
52. Duschenes to the author, June 10,
1986.
331
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