Potsdamer Platz

1914

Oil on canvas, 200 × 150 cm. Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin

Two women stand on a round traffic island while men in dark suits pass along the street behind them. It is the largest of the painter's city scenes.

Real landmarks appear, among them the domed Café Piccadilly at left and the entrance to the Potsdam railway station.
Look at the green street rising steeply behind the women, as if seen from above.
The black widow's veil on the left-hand woman was painted in after the war began.
The two women seem cut off from the passers-by around them. Warped space and unnatural color make a busy square feel isolating.
The museum bought it in 1999 with help from several German cultural foundations and the federal government.