A seated woman drawn in charcoal against dark hatching

A woman drawn in charcoal, seated facing the viewer against a high pillowed back that flares out on either side of her head. Her face is set down in a few strokes — dark eyes, a straight mouth — with a dark band across her hair. One hand rests on a ledge at the left, the other on a curved rail at the right, and a broad pale skirt spreads below. Diagonal hatching darkens the space around her, leaving the figure itself in bare paper.

Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) was a German artist who built an entire practice from what other people threw away. From 1919 he gave the name Merz to his collages and assemblages, composing tram tickets, wrappers, printed scraps and worn paper into taut abstract structures, and extending the idea into poetry, typography and the architectural Merzbau in his Hanover house. Close to Dada without ever formally joining it, he was condemned as degenerate by the Nazi regime and fled in 1937 to Norway and then to Britain, where he died in Kendal. His work is held by the Museum of Modern Art, Tate and the Sprengel Museum Hannover.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.