GEORG RÖSSNER

(German, 1885-1972)

PORTRAIT OF

LIESELOTTE FRIEDLÄNDER, CA. 1926

Oil on Canvas

49  x 35 Inches

Signed Lower Left, 'Georg W. Rössner' and Titled, 'Bildnis Lieselotte Friedländer'

 

A substantial, Modernist portrait of the fashion designer, Lieselotte Friedländer, shown seated in a chrome-steel Bauhaus chair with a view beyond to a sunlit, woodland grove.

 

Georg Rössner first studied in Berlin and, later, in Paris with Lovis Corinth. Rössner was a member of both the Berlin and Munich Sezession committees and, in 1920, was appointed professor at Berlin’s Staatliche Kunstschule. Over the course of a long career, Rössner exhibited internationally with success including at the 1929 Paris Exhibition des Peintres-Graveurs Allemands. His work is held in prominent private and public collections including the permanent collection of the National Gallery in Berlin.

 

Born in 1898, Lieselotte Friedländer moved to Berlin with her family in 1909. By the mid-1920s, she had established herself as the Weimar Republic's most influential fashion designer. Her drawings of elegant, adventurous women soon overflowed Berlin’s cafe landscape to become iconic templates for feminists and the avant-garde world-wide. Friedländer's fashion vision contributed significantly to women’s increasing emancipation in the professions, social activism, sports and self-determined eroticism. Rössner's elegant portrait of Friedländer, shown in her late twenties, stands as poignant testament to both her earthly beauty and her enduring legacy.

 

Accompanied by a first edition copy of Lieselotte Friedlaender (1898-1973) by Burcu Dogramaci; published 2001 by Ernst Wasmuth Verlag Tübingen, Berlin.

 

Reference:

E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Jacques Busse, 1999 Nouvelle Édition, Gründ 1911, Vol. 11, p.938; Thieme-Becker Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zu Gengenwart, Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 1992, Vol. 27/28, p. 504; Vollmer Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler des 20. Jarhhunderts, Hans Vollmer, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 1992, Vol. 4, p. 91; et al.