© Otto Dix/Bildupphovsrätt 2026
The artwork is not on display
About the artwork
Otto Dix’s portrait of a lady with a fox boa is drawn in pencil and watercolour, giving it an almost translucent quality. The hat resembles a drooping lettuce leaf perched on top of her head, her eyelids are heavily made-up, and her complexion is pallid. She appears almost ghost-like. The fox’s grin heightens the grotesqueness and turns the image into a caricature of the bourgeoisie. Dix himself remarked: “I had the feeling that there was a dimension of reality that no one had addressed in art: the dimension of ugliness”. Dix was one of the leading exponents of New Objectivity, an art movement that emphasised realism over abstraction. However, reality was often distorted and exaggerated, with a strong dose of irony and social criticism.
Signatures, inscriptions and marks
Signerad i tusch 'Dix 22 / 125' på nedre höger hörn, framsida
Selected exhibition history
Några expressionister (2000-2001)
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Önskemuseet (1963-1964)
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
The Moderna Museet exhibition catalogues
Önskemuseet : the museum of our wishes : notre musée tel qu´il devrait être : museum unserer wünsche : [utställning i Moderna Museet, Stockholm : 26 december 1963 - 16 februari 1964] / ordnad av Moderna Museets Vänner