GROUP OF WOMEN III

The work depicts a group of eight young women gathered around a table. Wearing only near-transparent slips, they are having rest in an intimate setting. They are drinking, stretching and talking. The scene is reminiscent of bathers in a hammam – a motif made popular by Neoclassicists, e.g. Ingres.

Gottlieb’s composition is harmonious, triangular. Warm colours dominate the painting, balanced by single light blue brushstrokes. Despite the references to some 19th-century masterpieces this work makes, it is a modernist piece. This is visible in the very conscious simplifications of the depicted figures and technical means, including the use of base as background and the juxtaposition of flat patches with a clear line. The combination of the glaze and impasto techniques gives spatiality to the painting.