Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/karl-schmidt-rottluff-1904" aria-label="More by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Karl Schmidt-Rottluff</a>
Two Women
Presented by the executors of Dr Rosa Schapire 1954
abstraction
actions: postures and motions
adults
bank
bathing / swimming
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
colour
countries and continents
Dangast
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
female
figure
formal qualities
from recognisable sources
Germany
grass
isolation
leisure and pastimes
nudes
people
places
plants and flowers
recreational activities
sadness
sitting
water: inland
woman
<p>Although this work was painted in Hamburg, it was probably inspired by the artist’s regular summer visits to Dangast on the North Sea coast. The dunes, grasslands and fishing villages of this area appear in a number of Schmidt-Rottluff’s paintings. The mask-like faces of the two women may reflect Schmidt-Rottluff’s familiarity with masks from Cameroon. The artists of the Brücke group drew inspiration from the African and South East Asian artefacts in the Dresden Ethnographic Museum, which they saw as embodying an unspoilt and more authentic culture.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2008</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
28 August 2009 – 21 February 2010
2010-02-21
28 August 2009 – 15 November 2009
2009-11-15
2009-08-28
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Hamburg, Germany)
5 December 2009 – 21 February 2010
2010-02-21
2009-12-05
Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (Chemnitz, Germany)
2009-08-28
Rosa Schapire
Loan-out
5 November 2016 – 31 August 2025
2025-08-31
5 November 2016 – 5 February 2017
2017-02-05
2016-11-05
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
18 March 2017 – 16 July 2017
2017-07-16
2017-03-18
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
11 August 2017 – 4 February 2018
2018-02-04
2017-08-11
Seoul Olympic Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
24 March 2018 – 24 June 2018
2018-06-24
2018-03-24
Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan)
13 July 2018 – 28 October 2018
2018-10-28
2018-07-13
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (Kaohsiung, Taiwan)
10 November 2023 – 14 April 2024
2024-04-14
2023-11-10
LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Westfälisches (Munster, Germany)
http://landesmuseum.lwl.org
23 November 2024 – 3 March 2025
2025-03-03
2024-11-23
Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, USA)
http://www.worcesterart.org
2016-11-05
Nude: art from the Tate collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
Two Women
support: 765 × 845 mm
frame: 912 × 994 × 64 mm
Presented by the executors of Dr Rosa Schapire 1954
<p>Although this work was painted in Hamburg, it was probably inspired by the artist’s regular summer visits to Dangast on the North Sea coast. The dunes, grasslands and fishing villages of this area appear in a number of Schmidt-Rottluff’s <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a>. The mask-like faces of the two women may reflect Schmidt-Rottluff’s familiarity with masks from Cameroon. The artists of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/b/brucke" title="Glossary definition for 'Brücke'"><span>Brücke</span></a> group drew inspiration from the African and South East Asian artefacts in the Dresden Ethnographic Museum, which they saw as embodying an unspoilt and more authentic culture.</p>

Display caption
2008-07-30T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Karl Schmidt-Rottluff</b><span> 1884-1976 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/schmidt-rottluff-two-women-n06249" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06249</span></a> </span><b>Two Women</b><span> 1912 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'S. Rottluff 1912' and 'Schmidt-Rottluff "Frauen" Ölgem' on stretcher</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 33 ¼ (76.5 x 84.5)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by the Executors of Dr Rosa Schapire in accordance with her wishes 1954</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Dr Rosa Schapire, Hamburg and London (purchased from the artist)</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
[?</span><i>Ausstellung von Künstlergruppe 'Brücke'</i><span>, Kunstsalon Fritz Gurlitt, Berlin, April-May 1912 (among twelve unnumbered and unlisted paintings by Schmidt-Rottluff); Galerie Commeter, Hamburg, August-September 1912 (among 69-88, twelve unlisted paintings by Schmidt-Rottluff)]; </span><i>Fauve Painting in France and Abroad</i><span>, Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London, March-April 1951 (40); </span><i>Les Sources du XX</i><i>e</i><i>
Siècle</i><span>, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, November 1960-January 1961 (644)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
W.R. Valentiner, 'Karl Schmidt-Rottluff' in </span><i>Der Cicerone</i><span>, XII, 1920, p.460 (reprinted in </span><i>Jahrbuch der jungen Kunst</i><span>, 1920, p.194); Will Grohmann, </span><i>Karl Schmidt-Rottluff</i><span>
(Stuttgart 1956), pp.50-1, 285, as 'Zwei Frauen'; Gerhard Wietek, 'Dr phil. Rosa Schapire' in </span><i>Jahrbuch der Hamburger Kunstsammlungen</i><span>, IX, 1964, p.136, repr. p.137 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The artist wrote (letter of 12 January 1956) that this picture was painted in Hamburg and, so far as he could remember, was included in a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/b/brucke" title="Glossary definition for 'Brücke'"><span>Brücke</span></a> exhibition at the Galerie Fritz Gurlitt in Berlin in 1912 or 1913 (presumably the first Berlin exhibition of Die Brücke in April 1912, which was afterwards shown at the Galerie Commeter in Hamburg). It has a label of the Galerie Commeter on the stretcher. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>His pictures of bathers were mostly inspired by his visits to the North Sea coast, at Dangaster Moor, where he spent part of each year from 1907-10 and which he revisited in the summer of 1912. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.672, reproduced p.672</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction actions: postures and motions adults bank bathing / swimming cities, towns, villages (non-UK) colour countries and continents Dangast emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas female figure formal qualities from recognisable sources Germany grass isolation leisure and pastimes nudes people places plants and flowers recreational activities sadness sitting water: inland woman