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The Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden (German: Bildnis der Journalistin Sylvia von Harden) is a painting by German painter Otto Dix, from 1926. It is made from a wood panel and a mixed technique of oil and tempera. The portrait was acquired from the artist by the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris in 1961 .

Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden
Artist	Otto Dix
Year	1926
Medium	Mixed technique of oil and tempera on wood
Dimensions	121 cm × 89 cm (48 in × 35 in)
Location	Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris

Description

The portrait is set on a red and pink background, without decoration and opening, which evokes the angle of a cafe. The androgynous looking woman sits cross-legged at a round table. She wears a red and black plaid dress with a high collar, and holds a cigarette in her right hand. The fingers are long with slightly protruding bones, and the jaw is triangular with a pointed chin. A long, clean nose separates the eyes surrounded by dark circles. She wears a monocle on the right eye. Her brown hair is very short, a typical bobbed haircut of the 1920s. On her pale skin stands out the slightly ajar mouth highlighted with a dark red lipstick. The woman is wearing light stockings, the rolled edge of which can be seen on the right leg.^{[citation needed]}

The woman's feet are not visible, because the portrait stops at mid-calf. On the table with a white marble top are placed a cigarette box marked with the name Sylvia von Harden, a matchbox bearing the German eagle and a conical glass three-quarters full. The round shapes of the art nouveau furniture contrast with the geometric shapes of the character and the objects.^{[citation needed]}

The character occupies the left half of the painting. The absence of decorative background elements accentuates her strong "presence", with nothing distracting the viewer's eye. The journalist poses three-quarters and looks sideways between the plane of the painting and the perpendicular one, which links the viewer to the portrait.[1][2][3]

Background

The sitter described his genesis in her article, "Erinnerungen an Otto Dix" ("Memories of Otto Dix"), in 1959. The painter met her on the street by chance and was impressed with her looks. He stated:

'I must paint you! I simply must!... You are representative of an entire epoch!'
'So, you want to paint my lacklustre eyes, my ornate ears, my long nose, my thin lips; you want to paint my long hands, my short legs, my big feet—things which can only scare people off and delight no-one?'
'You have brilliantly characterized yourself, and all that will lead to a portrait representative of an epoch concerned not with the outward beauty of a woman but rather with her psychological condition.'[4][5]

Von Harden agreed to pose for the painter, and sat for several sessions in the following weeks.

Influence

The portrait was recreated in the opening and closing scenes of the film Cabaret (1972) by Bob Fosse, set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic.[6]

References

На других языках

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[de] Bildnis der Journalistin Sylvia von Harden

Das Bildnis der Journalistin Sylvia von Harden ist ein 1926 entstandenes Gemälde des deutschen Künstlers Otto Dix (1891–1969), das der Stilrichtung der Neuen Sachlichkeit zugeschrieben wird. Es handelt sich um ein Porträt der Journalistin Sylvia von Harden (1894–1963), die von Dix in karikierender Manier als Repräsentantin des Zeittypus der Neuen Frau dargestellt wird.

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- [en] Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden

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[fr] Portrait de la journaliste Sylvia von Harden

Le Portrait de la journaliste Sylvia von Harden (en allemand : Bildnis der Journalistin Sylvia von Harden) est un tableau peint par Otto Dix en 1926. C'est une peinture sur bois réalisée avec une technique mixte : huile et tempera. Ses dimensions sont de 121 cm sur 89 cm. Ce tableau a été acheté à l’artiste à la mi de l'année 1961 par le musée national d'Art moderne du centre Georges-Pompidou à Paris.

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