Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<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>
Woman with a Bag
Presented by Dr Rosa Schapire 1950
actions: postures and motions
adults
anxiety
bag
clothing and personal items
colour
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
head in hand / hands
history
military: World War I
necklace
objects
people
sadness
woman
World War I - non-specific
<p>Woman with a Bag was completed shortly before Schmidt-Rottluff left for military service on the Russian front in autumn 1915. Its first owner felt that the dark colours and tragic expression of the portrait were a response to the misery of wartime. The woman’s face is elongated, with extended cheeks and nose, in the manner of West African masks. By contrast, her clothes and accessories are those of a fashionable European.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2008</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
18 April 2005 – 31 October 2005
2005-10-31
18 April 2005
2005-04-18
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2005-04-18
Degenerate Art
Collection based display
21 November 2005 – 23 October 2011
2011-10-23
21 November 2005 – 23 October 2011
2011-10-23
2005-11-21
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2005-11-21
Expressionism
Collection based display
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
Woman with a Bag
support: 952 × 873 mm
frame: 1142 × 1062 × 69 mm
Presented by Dr Rosa Schapire 1950
<p>Woman with a Bag was completed shortly before Schmidt-Rottluff left for military service on the Russian front in autumn 1915. Its first owner felt that the dark colours and tragic expression 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/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> were a response to the misery of wartime. The woman’s face is elongated, with extended cheeks and nose, in the manner of West African masks. By contrast, her clothes and accessories are those of a fashionable European.</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-woman-with-a-bag-n05953" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05953</span></a> </span><b>Woman with a Bag</b><span> 1915 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'S. Rottluff' b.l.</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 37 1/2 x 34 3/8 (95.5 x 87.5)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by Dr Rosa Schapire 1950</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Dr Rosa Schapire, Hamburg and London (purchased from the artist)</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Sonder-Ausstellung Schmidt-Rottluff</i><span>, Neue Kunst Hans Goltz, Munich, July 1917 (17, repr.); </span><i>Nyare Tysk Konst</i><span>, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, February-March 1922 (202, repr.); </span><i>Karl Schmidt-Rottluff: Gemälde, Aquarelle, Graphik</i><span>, Kunstverein, Hanover, November 1963-January 1964 (66, repr.); Museum Folkwang, Essen, January-March 1964 (66, repr.); Kunstverein, Frankfurt, March-May 1964 (66, repr.); Akademie der Künste, Berlin, June-July 1964 (66, repr.)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Rosa Schapire, 'Bilder deutscher Künstler in der Tate Gallery' in </span><i>Weltkunst</i><span>, XXIII, 1 September 1953, p.6 repr.; Will Grohmann, </span><i>Karl Schmidt-Rottluff</i><span>
(Stuttgart 1956), pp.47, 288, repr. p.194; Gerhard Wietek, 'Dr phil. Rosa Schapire' in </span><i>Jahrbuch der Hamburger Kunstsammlungen</i><span>, IX, 1964, pp.126, 130, 133, 136, repr. pp.132 and 136</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
Karl Brix, </span><i>Karl Schmidt-Rottluff</i><span>
(Vienna and Munich 1972), pl.25 in colour </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The same model posed for 'Woman putting on a Glove' and also possibly for 'Woman with a Tulip', both of 1915 (repr. W. Grohmann, op. cit., pp.53 and 261 respectively). The present work was said by Dr Schapire to have been painted in the autumn of 1915 in the artist's studio in Berlin a few weeks before he left for service on the Russian front. 'It is probably the last <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>painting</span></a> he did in 1915, he knew that the time of his freedom was over. I have the feeling that this painting, which as a subject has nothing to do with the war, is in its tragic expression and dark colours one of the most impressive documents of the misery of the war' (letter of 8 January 1951). </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The frame was made by the artist, who probably also made the frames for </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N06248" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N06248');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N06248</span></a><span>
and </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N06249" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N06249');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N06249</span></a><span>. </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, pp.672-3, reproduced p.672</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults anxiety bag clothing and personal items colour emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities head in hand / hands history military: World War I necklace objects people sadness woman World War I - non-specific