Lot Essay
The present work is one of a series of some twenty-five watercolours dating from 1922 to 1923, which Dix based on the theme of the circus (including Pfäffle A1922/7, A1922/50 and A1923/147). The Amazone in the foreground also appears in an etching of the same year entitled Internationaler Reitakt (Karsch 37, see Fig. 1).
"Dix was drawn to the circus and the fairground as subjects because the people that worked there lived on the edges of society, free of many of the moral constraints of everyday life. Above all they lived dangerously, putting their lives on the line every time they went into the ring. For Dix they were a model for the way everyone should live." (Otto Dix 1891-1969, exh. cat. London, 1992, pp. 140-1).
Works from this series are held in several major public and private collections, including the Otto Dix Stiftung, Vaduz, and the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt.
"Dix was drawn to the circus and the fairground as subjects because the people that worked there lived on the edges of society, free of many of the moral constraints of everyday life. Above all they lived dangerously, putting their lives on the line every time they went into the ring. For Dix they were a model for the way everyone should live." (Otto Dix 1891-1969, exh. cat. London, 1992, pp. 140-1).
Works from this series are held in several major public and private collections, including the Otto Dix Stiftung, Vaduz, and the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt.