Rudolf Schlichter, from Dada to realism

Lady with red scarf, 1933

The painting above, Lady with red scarf, by Rudolf Schlichter, 1890-1955, belongs to the George Economou collection and has been recently exhibited at Tate Modern in London.

« Immediately after the war, Schlichter was associated with the anarchic Berlin dada artists. Like George Grosz and Otto Dix, he went on to develop a highly detailed realist technique. This portrait shows his wife, Speedy Schlichter. She adopted the anglicised name in place of her original name, Elfriede Koehler. She is presented here as a self-assured, even confrontational figure. The evening sky and devastated landscape add a mysterious, fantastical quality. «  (text from the Tate exhibition).

Other works of Schlichter, an ever experimenting artist, an endless seeker:

Portrait of the journalist Egon Erwin Kisch