The Gräfe Art Concept gallery is currently presenting a remarkable exhibition featuring landscapes, portraits, and sketches by Lotte Laserstein, the renowned artist who embodied the archetype of the "New Woman" in Berlin before fleeing to Sweden in 1937. This rare showcase of works from the artist's estate represents a small sensation in the art world, offering pieces at surprisingly affordable prices with few exceptions.

For Lotte Laserstein, there was never a question of whether to follow the Impressionists or pay homage to the Expressionists. When she began her studies at the Berlin University of Fine Arts in the early 1920s, the Cubism conceived by Picasso and Braque was already more than a decade old. Painting and sculpture had long since modernized, but for female artists, the clocks ticked differently. Laserstein belonged to the first generation of women who could study painting at an academy at all. Born in 1898, the artist took this opportunity seriously and immersed herself in naturalistic representation that was still rooted in the 19th century.

Landscapes—particularly of Berlin, which expanded rapidly during Laserstein's time—still life, portraits, and nudes belonged to her repertoire. The current exhibition unfolds all these aspects through drawings and paintings that showcase what defined the artist. Gallery owner Hilde Gräfe has selected works from a collection that reveal Laserstein's precise eye for the female body, which she did not celebrate erotically but rather as an expression of self-determined femininity.

Among the highlights is a large charcoal drawing titled "Reclining Female Nude" from 1928, a study for the painting "In My Studio," which is considered one of the masterpieces in Laserstein's oeuvre. Due to its significance, this study carries a price tag in the lower six figures. In contrast, a watercolor created in the late 1930s with a view of the Schöneberg gasometer costs around 20,000 euros. This piece was completed shortly before her emigration to Sweden in 1937.

By that time, the Nazis had already closed Laserstein's private art school in Berlin and declared her three-quarters Jewish. The existence of this previously autonomous woman, who had built strong networks and served on the board of the Association of Berlin Female Artists while embodying the archetype of the New Woman in the Weimar Republic, was destroyed. Lotte Laserstein left the country with part of her work on the occasion of an exhibition at the Stockholm Art Museum, went into exile, and never returned.

This explains why the rediscovery of this magnificent painter only began in 2003 with an exhibition at Berlin's Ephraim Palace. Even today, she does not represent the avant-garde but shines through her own style that captures the objects of her interest with equal benevolence and precision. Laserstein was a master of flesh tones and light direction, as evidenced in the painting "Church Dignitary (Cardinal)," whom Gräfe considers more likely to be an actor (price available upon request).

Her flower paintings, such as "Rose Blossoms" (9,900 euros) from the 1950s, appear somewhat conventionally composed but are flawlessly painted. A wonderful colored sketch of a group of children with references to the aesthetics of Heinrich Zille and contemporary fashion illustrations has already been secured by a collector couple who have departed for Hamburg with their acquisition.

Other pencil drawings like "Young Woman with Supported Head" are still available for viewing (3,900 euros), as well as the painting "At the Vaxholm Ship Quay" (19,900 euros), which transforms people in the harbor into colorful strokes while the ferry dissolves into pure color and painterly gesture. A touch of abstraction resonates in that view, yet Lotte Laserstein, who died in 1993, never forgot her academic past.

The exhibition runs until November 1st at Gräfe Art Concept, located at Knesebeckstrasse 89. The gallery is open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 1 PM to 7 PM, offering art enthusiasts a unique opportunity to encounter the work of an artist whose legacy continues to challenge conventional narratives about artistic movements of the early 20th century.