Lotte Laserstein

There is a new exhibition in Malmo called ‘Lotte Laserstein: A Divided Life’ which features Laserstein’s paintings from both her Berlin and Sweden eras. This is unusual as her later Swedish work is usually not featured – somehow it’s seen as less ‘important’. Laserstein fled Germany at the start of the war as she was part Jewish. Obviously the upheaval of moving from what was a burgeoning successful career in Berlin to having to start again in Sweden where Laserstein didn’t know anyone, would have had a tremendous impact on her work, and I was interested to see her Swedish works.

Coincidentally, not long ago my interest in Laserstein was piqued by her self-portrait from 1928 (with cat), which is in one of my portraiture books.

What struck me most about the 1928 self-portrait were both Laserstein’s androgynous appearance and her style of painting style which is so accomplished and beautiful. The white shirt and skin which are made of subtly varying patches of colour, and the cat whose fur is rendered so well. It makes me want to paint like that. Laserstein’s painting style is both modern and classical.

I then more recently went on to buy ‘The Story of Art Without Men’ by Katy Hessel, which also features a section on Laserstein. Then, when looking for books on Laserstein, I found the exhibition catalogue and found out about it that way. Looking at the exhibition website, which features a good number of paintings, I was struck by Laserstein’s self-portrait from 1927, shortly after she left Berlin art academy.

A few days ago I’d completed a self portrait where I was lit from behind in a similar way to Laserstein’s painting, and I had struggled massively while painting it. I scraped it off about 5 times before settling on a more expressive loose style for the final painting.

In both my and Laserstein’s compositions, our faces are mostly in shadow. Laserstein, however, has very successfully managed the transition from the dark face to the highlighted cheek and neck. I really struggled with this in my painting. My composition also didn’t help, as I was also looking down at myself at an angle. I am so impressed with how Laserstein handled her tilted head, something which I always struggle with as our natural tendency seems to be to straighten everything out, albeit subconsciously. Looking closely at Laserstein’s work, I can see that she used thin paint and the canvas shows through, which is very different from my own work which is laid on in impasto. I also love Laserstein’s use of line in her painting, which somehow ties the figure to the background, and all imbued with a warm brown, which combined with the artist’s expression give the painting a subdued, soulful feel.

I was also struck by how beautifully painted ‘Man from Mongolia’ is. I love seeing the brushmarks up close, and again how the painting is made up of small, subtly varying, patches of colour. It reminds me a bif of the early works of Lucian Freud.