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Lotte Laserstein looks out with a subtle smile, a brush or porte-crayon raised thoughtfully to her lips, with a screen of trees behind her. A star pupil at Berlin’s art academy, she made something of a specialty of specialized in the subject of the New Woman, whether in portraits, scenes of urban leisure or sport, or as in her self-imaging, in a professional context at work. She exhibited extensively and ran a thriving studio, but the rise of National Socialism forced her life and career in a different direction. Though she was baptized and raised Christian, three of her grandparents were Jewish and she was targeted, her art deemed Degenerate. In 1937, an offer for an exhibition in Sweden gave her a destination to flee Germany and start a new chapter with her art. Subsequently, despite an active career, her work remained little known outside Sweden until very recently.
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Self-Portrait
Lotte Laserstein (German (active in Sweden), 1898 – 1993)
about 1932
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
36 × 21 cm (14 3/16 × 8 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Mary L. Cornille and John F. Cogan, Jr. Fund for the Art of Europe
Accession Number2023.387
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPaintings
Lotte Laserstein looks out with a subtle smile, a brush or porte-crayon raised thoughtfully to her lips, with a screen of trees behind her. A star pupil at Berlin’s art academy, she made something of a specialty of specialized in the subject of the New Woman, whether in portraits, scenes of urban leisure or sport, or as in her self-imaging, in a professional context at work. She exhibited extensively and ran a thriving studio, but the rise of National Socialism forced her life and career in a different direction. Though she was baptized and raised Christian, three of her grandparents were Jewish and she was targeted, her art deemed Degenerate. In 1937, an offer for an exhibition in Sweden gave her a destination to flee Germany and start a new chapter with her art. Subsequently, despite an active career, her work remained little known outside Sweden until very recently.
Inscriptionslower left: Lotte Laserstein
Provenance1991, sold by the artist to a private collector, Great Britain; 2023, sold by Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd., London, to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 21, 2023)