Rudolf Schlichter

In Schlichter’s art, three characteristics of Weimar-era Berlin run together: a keen commitment to leftist values, an interest in sexuality and death, and a heightened representational realism. Bellmer, as a young engineering student, met Schlichter. Brecht, Döblin, Jünger, Kisch and Kästner were among his writer friends (he painted a classic portrait of Brecht). Herzfelde, Heartfield, Piscator and Grosz founded a communist artists’ group (Rote Gruppe) with him; Heartfield was a close colleague, Grosz a good friend — he was at Schlichter’s wedding, described his knowledge as encyclopaedic, and did a drawing poking fun at his shoe-fetishism.