The Victor

The German-Swiss painter Ottilie W. Roederstein was one of the outstanding women artists of the period around 1900. As a freelance portraitist, Roederstein was firmly established in the male-dominated art world and self-confidently disregarded the prevailing social norms of her time. Today, thanks to the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, we present one of her paintings, The Victor.

The sculptural monumentality, tight framing, and cursory blocking in of the pictorial space are all aspects that Roederstein borrowed from her teacher, Hans von Marées, and then made her own. The intense stylization of the figure has made way for a substantially more naturalistic and objective depiction. Roederstein often used a dark-toned color palette, and embraced tempera as a technique that was in vogue at the time in both traditional and avant-garde context. Later in her career, Roederstein opened up to other trends such as Impressionism and Symbolism and returned to her signature style in the 1920s.

P.S. Let us look at some of the best male bodies in art history!

P.P.S. Ottilie Roederstein is featured in our Women Artists 50 Postcard Set.