Old Woman

Prints and Drawings

c. 1923

Otto Dix
German, 1891–1969

After serving in World War I, where he mastered the machine-gun, Dix began making art that set out to reveal society’s immorality and ugly truths. In this watercolor, an old prostitute’s wrinkled exterior and toothless, puckered mouth remind the viewer of the inevitability of death while playing on our vulnerability to vanity, greed, and lust.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Otto Dix
Title: Old Woman
Place: Germany (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1918–1928
Medium: Brush and black ink and watercolor on cream Japanese paper
Inscriptions: Signed recto, lower right, in graphite: "DIX"; lower left, in graphite: "DIX 317"; inscribed verso, lower left, in graphite: "12 / 248 / Nr. 200"; lower center, in graphite: "um 1922"; lower right, in graphite: "189 Greisin / 106 / 35" [encircled]
Dimensions: 52 × 38.6 cm (20 1/2 × 15 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2013.929
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Suse Pfäffle, Otto Dix: Werkverzeichnis der Aquarelle und Gouachen (Stuttgart, 1991), cat. A 1923/116, p. 193 (ill.).
Ulrike Lorenz, Otto Dix: Das Werkverzeichnis der Zeichnungen und Pastelle, vol. 2 (Weimar, 2003) p. 831, cat. No. EDV 9.2.17 (ill.).
Otto Dix Handzeichnungen, ed. Otto Conzelmann (Hannover, 1968), p.95, cat. 95 (ill.).
Suzanne Folds McCullagh (ed.), Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2006), pp. 186-187, cat. 137 (ill.).

Berlin, Kronprinzenpalais, “Dix, Aquarellausstellung,” 1924.
Freiburg, Kunstverein, “Otto Dix, Gemälde–Aquarelle–Zeichnung,” 1950, cat. 70.
Düsseldorf, Kunstmuseum, “Otto Dix,” 1960, cat. 117.
Berlin, Galerie Nierendorf, “Otto Dix, 1918–1960,” 1961, cat. 15.
Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum, “Otto Dix,” 1962, cat.70.
West Berlin, Kongresshalle, “Otto Dix,” 1963, cat. 92.
Munich, Galerie Klihm, “Otto Dix,” 1966, cat. 21.
Baden-Baden, Galerie Dr. Ernst Hauswedell, “Otto Dix, Handzeichnungen, 1911–1934,” 1967, cat. 23.
Lörrach, Galerie Regio, “Otto Dix–Erich Heckel–Karl Schmidt-Rottluff,” 1968, cat.8.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” June 3–July 30, 2006, pp. 186-187, cat. 137 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Thrill of the Chase: Drawings for the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” March 15-June 15, 2014, no cat.

Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin, by Jan. 1961-at least Oct. 1963. Sold, Kunsthaus Math. Lempertz, Cologne, Dec. 1965, lot 211. Galerie Klihm, Munich, by Nov. 1966. Galerie Dr. Ernst Hauswedell, Baden-Baden, Sept. 1967. Galerie Regio, Lorrach, by Aug. 1968. Galerie Klihm, Munich. Private colelction, New York; sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Feb. 23, 1993, lot 49, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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