Reclining Woman

In the early twenties, Dix devoted more drawings to prostitution and the sexual underworld than to any other subject. By the end of the decade, however, there was a shift in his subject, away from prostitutes and toward studio-posed nudes such as this one. Dix's incisive linear technique here gives way to a more delicate and fluid manner in which color plays the dominant role. Using a more absorbent support, he exploited the feathery effect of watercolor bleeding into the paper to render the textures of fur and skin.