Hockende Mädchen

Otto Mueller executed this painting of crouching girls as part of his lifelong exploration of the female nude in natural settings. Mueller was a member of Die Brücke, the Dresden-based group of Expressionist artists that included Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel. His style emphasized harmonious simplification of form, color, and contour.

Mueller preferred working in distemper on coarse canvas, which gave his paintings a distinctive matte surface. He greatly admired Egyptian art and sought to achieve similar clean, simple lines in his own work. His nickname "Gypsy Mueller" came from his frequent depictions of Romani women and possibly from his own heritage, as his mother may have been Romani.

It now hangs in a private collection. In 1937, the Nazis seized 357 of Mueller's works from German museums, declaring them "degenerate art." His focus on the unity between humans and nature, often expressed through figures in landscapes, made his work particularly targeted by the regime's cultural policies.