Berlin Street Scene

1913–14

Oil on canvas. Neue Galerie New York and Private Collection, New York

Two women in plumed hats and fur collars, read by the museum as prostitutes, walk a crowded pavement among men in dark coats. He painted it after the group's 1911 move from Dresden to Berlin.

Two sisters, Erna and Gerda Schilling, served as models; he met them in his first Berlin months.
Look at the faces: narrow, masklike and almost alike, with little expression to read.
Long, hatched strokes sit on a pinkish field between the figures, so the crowd seems to flicker.
The color is pitched at full strength: red, deep blue and green sit side by side, jolting the eye rather than matching the street.
The museum marked its acquisition with a 2007 exhibition and describes the painting as recently restituted.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · PD-Art