Oil on cardboard. Signed and dated in the upper left. 28 x 18 cm. . [CH].
- From the important series of the “Hekate Pictures,” which mark the transition from figuration to abstraction in E. W. Nay's oeuvre. - A version created shortly thereafter is now in the Hegenbarth Collection, Berlin (1946, cat. rais. no. 362). - Nay translates the physiognomy of the human body into almost geometric forms in a sophisticated and imaginative way. - Works from this creative period are part of notable museum collections, including the Sprengel Museum, Hanover, the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, and the Nationalgalerie, Berlin.
The work will be included as an addendum in the catalogue raisonné of oil paintings under number 342.1. We are grateful to Aurel Scheibler and Dr. Brigitte Schlüter, Ernst Wilhelm Nay Foundation, Cologne, for their kind expert advice.

Dr. Mutter Collection, Bad Säckingen. Private collection, South Germany (inherited from the above). In family ownership ever since

Dense composition with intense colors and in good condition. The paint application is quite impasto in places. There are a few tiny professional retouches. A few tiny pinpoint losses of paint on the edges of the cardboard. Fragmentary fingerprint in the upper margin. The condition report was compiled in daylight with a UV light source and to the best of our knowledge and belief.