Degenerate Art: Otto Mueller
Girl on the Settee (Mädchen auf dem Kanapee), 1914
Glue-bound distemper on burlap laminated on canvas
60 × 106 cm (23.6 × 41.7 in)
Auctioned at Ketterer Kunst for € 825,500 in 2023

Painted in 1914, Mädchen auf dem Kanapee is one of Otto Mueller’s most intimate and compelling portrayals of the female figure. The reclining model is Maschka, the artist’s wife and lifelong confidante, shown in a pose that is both self-assured and quietly sensual. Dressed in a simple white chemise and green skirt, she appears entirely at ease, her presence radiating a calm, unforced eroticism. Mueller’s remark, “I can only paint what I love,” finds its fullest resonance here. The work feels less like a formal composition and more like a moment of private closeness made visible.

Mueller’s use of glue-bound distemper on coarse burlap—later mounted on canvas—belongs to his most experimental and progressive period. The matte, absorbent surface softens contours and lends the painting a velvety, atmospheric quality. Combined with the flattened perspective, the restrained yet luminous palette, and the bold cropping of the figure, the result is a composition that reads as strikingly modern even today.

Created in 1914, the painting reflects a moment when Mueller was refining a quieter, more lyrical direction in his work after the dissolution of Die Brücke. While his years with the group had sharpened his sense of contour and composition, he increasingly gravitated toward scenes of repose and human closeness. His preference for earthy tones, elongated forms, and the matte surface of distemper became essential to this shift, allowing him to convey intimacy without theatricality.

Girl on the Settee embodies this evolution with unusual clarity. The figure’s unguarded posture, the subdued palette, and the tactile presence of the burlap support all speak to Mueller’s belief that painting should reveal an inner stillness rather than outward drama. The work also reflects his deepening interest in the emotional resonance of everyday moments—an approach that distinguished him from the more confrontational tendencies within Expressionism.

In the decades that followed, Mueller’s art was condemned by the Nazi regime and removed from public collections, yet works such as this one demonstrate why his legacy endured. Their quiet intensity, technical refinement, and profound sensitivity to the human figure secure his place as one of the most distinctive voices within German Expressionism.