The Yellow Parasol by Lotte Laserstein
Oil, 1935.
Art work details
- Year of production :
- 1935
- Artist:
- Lotte Laserstein
- Medium :
- Oil painting
- Materials:
- Oil paint, Paper
- Dimensions :
- height: 58 cms; width: 44 cms
- Credit Line :
- Purchased from the artist through Thos. Agnew and Sons Ltd
- Copyright :
- © DACS 2021
- Tags:
- Yellow, Portrait, Laserstein
From about 1931 onwards, Laserstein began to adopt a looser, more fluid technique, her brushstrokes more impressionistic.
This portrait of Laserstein’s close friend and favourite model Gertrud Rose (Traute Rose) is relaxed and informal. The image of a woman with a parasol can be seen in Japanese prints but was also adopted by Western European artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Monet and Kirchner.
Added visual interest comes from the plant fibres visible in the support of handmade paper; also the numerous tonal changes across the picture reflecting dappled sunlight and shadows beneath the golden parasol. Traute Rose was Laserstein’s principal model throughout her life. She helped to get Laserstein’s remaining paintings out of Germany in 1938, thus avoiding their seizure by the Nazi authorities. Traute Rose died in 1989 aged 86.
(Research by Barry Herbert).