Tattersall, 1909

About the Work

The term “Tattersall” – after the successful London horse trainer Richard Tattersall (1724–1795) – came into use in Germany back in the late nineteenth century to refer to certain riding halls and arenas. Kirchner rendered the proud equestrienne with the two blacks in tension-filled contrast. He countered the nearly linear grain of the wood in the green blouse with the ‘cloudy’ orange that forms the background and lends the black a vibrant chromatic quality.

About the Acquisition

From 1900 onwards, the Frankfurt chemist and industrialist Carl Hagemann (1867‒1940) assembled one of the most important private collections of modern art. It included numerous paintings, drawings, watercolours and prints, especially by members of the artist group “Die Brücke”. After Carl Hagemann died in an accident during the Second World War, the then Städel director Ernst Holzinger arranged for Hagemann’s heirs to evacuate his collection with the museum’s collection. In gratitude, the family donated almost all of the works on paper to the Städel Museum in 1948. Further donations and permanent loans as well as purchases of paintings and watercolours from the Hagemann estate helped to compensate for the losses the museum had suffered in 1937 as part of the Nazi’s “Degenerate Art” campaign. Today, the Hagemann Collection forms the core of the Städel museum’s Expressionist collection.