The Online Otto Dix Project

Description: A crowd of demonstrators marches in the street. One carries a declaration of their needs. His sign reads, "We want bread!" The crowd can be seen through the window of an elegant cafe. The patrons are elegantly dressed and shipping champagne. Despite the ruckus in the street, they are oblivious to those outside.

Description: In 1914, Dix was an enthusiastic volunteer in the Kaiser's army. Retrospect did not allow him to alter depictions of himself at that time. Here he is very much a warrior, course and unshaven with a cigarette in his mouth and a machine gun in his arms. His uniform is tattered while his helmet is punctured. Dix survived despite the skull-like appearance of his face.

Description: This is a preparatory drawing for Dix's oil portrait of the photographer Hugo Erfurth. There are very few animals in the Dix catalog but the artist painted Erfurth's faithful German Shepard on several occasions.

Erfurth was 15 years his senior and an established photographer when the pair met. As a result, Dix may have initially shied away from his characteristic tendency to accentuate the subject's worst traits. By 1926, Dix appears to have possessed the confidence to give Erfurth the full treatment. The photographer's rotund face, slumped shoulders and failing eyesight are featured prominently in this drawing.