Woman in a Leather Jacket
Oil on canvas · 50 × 80 cm · 2019
This is the first portrait I painted. After experimenting with tools in oil it dawned on me: people are far more interesting. I’m fascinated by 1920s art, especially New Objectivity, and wanted to try a portrait in that style.
In an exhibition, I had seen Lady in Fur, a 1925 painting by Wilhelm Lachnit. I didn’t want to paint an exact copy, though — I wondered instead how she might look today. I don’t know much about the woman herself, but she was plausibly a flapper, to use the English term for the Weimar Republic’s modern, liberated women.
She surely wouldn’t wear fur today. And “Lady” — duh. Leather jacket instead of fur, “Woman” instead of “Lady” — hence the title “Woman in a Leather Jacket”.