Houses in Dresden with People Strolling

1909

Crayon on buff wove paper, sheet 32.4 × 44.3 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington

A rapid sketch of a street corner: a tall block with a pitched roof, trees on either side and a road curving away. It shows how much of a city scene a few broken lines can hold.

Look at the two small figures in hats at center: one coat is left blank, the other is shaded dark.
Hard-pressed crayon makes the outlines; lighter rubbing gives the gray in the roof and trees.
Windows shrink to single hooked strokes and trees swell into loose, wavy shapes. Nothing is worked up to a finish, in line with the group's 1906 program, which called for direct, unfalsified expression.
Signed at lower left in black chalk.
It passed from the artist's estate through a dealer in Como to Ruth Cole Kainen in 1990, and came to the museum with her gift in 2012.

Image: National Gallery of Art Open Access · CC0