Lotte Laserstein

The works's authenticity has been confirmed by Dr Anna-Carola Krausse, March 2014.

After having finished her studies at the Berlin Academy of Art in 1927, Lotte Laserstein opened a private art school which she runs until 1935 when the Nazis forced her to shut it down.
From the beginning of the 1930s Laserstein undertook extended study trips with her students to the countryside. During these trips landscapes and portraits of peasants were a favorite motif. Thus the painting „Girl and Old Man“ was very probably executed on one of these excursions between 1932 and 1935. An exact dating though is hard to be given. The dark brownish tone of the painting, the modest setting where the models were captured, and not at least the sensitive, but vivid brush stroke are very similar to works we know today from a trip to Neu St. Jürgen - a little village close to the former artists’ colony Worpswede - were Laserstein and her students stayed in 1932. Looking at the models however, there is no similarity to be found to the persons we know from the Teufelsmoor paintings. Thus it is highly possible that this painting was executed on a later trip in 1935, from which only a few works are known today. A hint gives the signature. It does not correspond to Laserstein’s way of signing in the early 1930s, but rather looks like a later signature, more matching Laserstein’s handwriting in Sweden.
It’s absolutely thinkable that she signed this painting later, but looking at the way of how it was painted, and taking into consideration that this topic was typical for her works executed during the study trips, the painting can be dated „mid 1930s“.

Dr Anna-Carola Krausse, 2014.