The brim of her hat loops to make a shadow, the better to show her gaunt profile. Strands of hair writhe against her cheek and complement a fur stole on her shoulder. In 1923 Otto Dix went to Düsseldorf to learn new printing skills, including lithography which would show his drawing skills to better effect. He made a series of character studies, including this affecting portrayal of a pale woman reduced almost to a shadow of herself. Eyes closed to the exquisite world represented by those materials set out by the artist, she seems scarcely aware.

Dix’s Dame mit Reiher would have been very much in vogue amongst her peers, pictured above.
Photograph courtesy of: the Archive of Modern Conflict, London