47 - OTTO DIX

OTTO DIX (1891 Gera – 1969 Singen am Hohentwiel) Harbor, 1922 Watercolor and gouache on paper. 48.7 x 36.7 cm. Gallery stamp “Nierendorf” on the reverse. Signed and dated (19)22 in the lower right corner. Traces of tape on the upper corners; a small corner broken off at the lower right. A tear along the upper edge of the sheet (approx. 1.5 cm). WVZ: Pfäffle A 1922/172. Provenance: Private collection, Hesse; Nierendorf Gallery Otto Dix was one of the most important representatives of New Objectivity. In 1933, he was defamed by the National Socialists as “degenerate” and dismissed from his teaching position; he subsequently withdrew temporarily into “inner emigration.” His work is considered central to 20th-century German art. This watercolor unfolds a complex, interlocking harbor scene. Masts and rigging structure the sheet with striking vertical lines; bodies of water, architecture, and fragmented figures overlap in transparent layers. Particularly striking is the blue face in the lower part of the picture. It appears mask-like, almost skull-like, with darkly outlined eye sockets that directly engage the viewer’s gaze. The red pearl necklace around the neck adds a jarring accent and heightens the scene’s latent sense of unease. It is precisely the date of 1922 that lends the work special significance. In the early years of the Weimar Republic, Dix developed his characteristic visual language, oscillating between expressive intensification and increasing analytical precision. The motif of the harbor—as a place of trade, transit, and social concentration—reflects his interest in the margins of society and areas of social tension. At the same time, the drawing exhibits a formal openness in which perception, memory, and visionary blending intertwine. With its iconographic richness, masterful combination of watercolor and gouache, and clear historical context, the work ranks among the finest pieces from Dix’s pivotal developmental phase. It documents the moment when his artistic vision took on a lasting form—and thus holds particular art-historical significance within his body of work from the early 1920s.