Oskar Kokoschka’s watercolor Kneeling Woman (1922) was created during his Dresden period, when he held a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden from 1919 to 1923. During this time, Kokoschka worked extensively from live, dynamic models, producing studies that often served as preparatory work for his larger paintings.

In the early 1920s, he produced numerous nudes in watercolor, executed quickly and spontaneously, representing a high point of expressive freedom in his oeuvre. These works capture both the vivid color characteristic of his paintings of the period and the spontaneity and economy of line seen in his contemporaneous pen-and-ink drawings. In Kneeling Woman, Kokoschka experiments with composition and figure placement, achieving a freer, more fluid style that is also reflected in his paintings from the same period. The work is distinguished by visible brushstrokes and areas of exposed paper, emphasizing immediacy, energy, and painterly tactility. After leaving Dresden, Kokoschka’s graphic production largely ceased, making these watercolors from his Dresden years particularly significant.

Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright, and teacher, celebrated for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes. At the turn of the century, his rejection of the ornamental Jugendstil in favor of a raw, visceral representation of the human figure, coupled with provocative explorations of sexual and social taboos, established him as a rebellious figure within the conservative Viennese cultural landscape.



Dr. Mag. Alfred Weidinger, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, has verbally confirmed the authenticity of the work. (11.02.2016)