Dancer
c. 1910
Medium
brush and black ink
Dimensions
overall: 35 x 45.1 cm (13 3/4 x 17 3/4 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1951.10.373
Art Historical Context
Max Pechstein’s *Dancer* (c. 1910) is a dynamic brush-and-black-ink drawing that captures the energy of movement through bold, fluid lines. Created on a sheet measuring 35 by 45.1 centimeters, the work highlights the expressive potential of ink as a medium, allowing artist to convey rhythm and gesture with spontaneous, economical strokes rather than elaborate detail. Pechstein, a leading member of the German Expressionist group Die Brücke, made this drawing during a period when artists sought to break from academic traditions and explore raw emotional force. The subject of a dancer aligns wit...
About the Artist
Max Pechstein
Hermann Max Pechstein (1881–1955) was born in Zwickau, Germany, the son of a craftsman in the textile industry. He trained as a decorative painter in his home city before enrolling at the School of Applied Arts in Dresden and then transferring to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under the painter Otto Gussmann. His early exposure to the work of Vincent van Gogh proved decisive in d...