The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Portrait of a Woman

1938

Wols

(German, 1913–1951)
Germany, 20th century
gelatin silver print
Image: 22.2 x 25.8 cm (8 3/4 x 10 3/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2007.137
Location: Not on view

Description

Although the sitter’s identity is not known, related images of her by Wols are inscribed, "killed at Auschwitz by the Nazis in 1941, our German friend." Wols often posed his female portrait subjects in recumbent positions and photographed them from above. With hindsight about this particular woman’s fate, her position and closed eyes seem to unsettlingly predict her demise.
  • The artist's estate, Paris
    Friday, November 17, 2000
    (Baron Ribeyre; Drouot Richelieu, Paris, Nov. 17, 2000, no. 111, sold to David Raymond)
    2000-2007
    David Raymond [b.1979], New York, NY
    2007-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E. Hinson, Ian Walker, and Lisa Kurzner. Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography : the David Raymond Collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art. 2014. Reproduced: p. 171, no. 123; reproduced and mentioned: p. 240.
  • Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19, 2014-January 11, 2015).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of a Woman|url=false|author=Wols|year=1938|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2007.137