Three at a Table (Drei am Tisch)

1914

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

Associated Names
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

Artist, German, 1884 - 1976

The image displays bold, angular shapes and sharp lines intersecting to create a dynamic composition. Geometric forms suggest two figures seated at a table with a wine glass between them. The figures resemble human faces and bodies, evoking elements of a conversation or social interaction. Contrasting black and white tones emphasize the sculptural quality of the forms, focusing on the interaction within the abstract setting.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut in black on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    block: 49.8 × 40 cm (19 5/8 × 15 3/4 in.)
    sheet: 61.6 × 50.9 cm (24 1/4 × 20 1/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1951.10.406

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Schapire 1924, Vol. W, no. 167

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Claude Schaefer [1913-2010], Montevideo, Uruguay; sold 1950 to Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979]; [1] gift to NGA, 1950.

[1] In Recollections of a Collector, 1976, p. 56-57, Rosenwald described being approached by a young man in South America who offered to sell his father’s collection of prints that he had brought with him from Germany. Rosenwald gives the year as 1951, but his appointment books confirm that it was actually 1950 - he left for Buenos Aires on 9 February 1950 and returned on 20 March 1950 (Library of Congress, Rosenwald Papers, Box 75). Rosenwald writes that he bought the entire collection of some 1100 prints and drawings, but as they had already been scheduled to be sent to Europe they came to the United States via Antwerp, arriving in the US in late April 1950. Rosenwald decided to keep about a quarter of the collection, destined for the National Gallery of Art, and donate the remainder to other institutions. The inventory log of Alverthorpe indicates that just over 300 works were accessioned there in May of 1950, inventory numbers 50.260-50.530, acquired from Claude Schaefer (Gallery Archives, National Gallery of Art, RG 45A1, Rosenwald Papers, Box 41).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2020

  • Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, The Phillips Collection, Washington, 2020 - 2021, unnumbered catalogue.

  • Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, 2020-2021, no. 10.

Bibliography

1924

  • Schapire, Rosa. Karl Schmidt-Rottluffs graphische Werk bis 1923. Berlin: Euphorion-Verlag, 1924.

Inscriptions

in margin at upper left, in graphite by unknown hand: 17 4388; in margin at lower left, in graphite by unknown hand: 8335; below image at lower right, in graphite: [artist's signature]; in margin at lower right, in graphite: "Drei am Tisch"; verso, at lower right, in graphite: [undecipherable] 138/80.

Wikidata ID

Q65361050

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