As one of the first women to study art at the Berlin Academy, Lotte Laserstein was celebrated in Berlin during the Weimar Republic as a "shining talent" and "great artist". (Unterhaltungsblatt der Düsseldorfer Nachrichten, January 14, 1930; Der Berliner Westen, December 12, 1930) But as early as in 1933, after the National Socialists had came into power and her subsequent emigration to Sweden, she began to fall into oblivion. Until the 1990s, she was hardly mentioned either in public or in academic discourse, in contrast to many of her male contemporaries. Like Käthe Kollwitz, Laserstein developed her very own pictorial formula, which is impossible to subsume under a generic term such as New Objectivity. The impressive realist can therefore be regarded as one of the most important German painters of the 20th century, not least because of her thematic focus on the "role of the new woman".

In our double portrait, the subject seems to be the role of the 'new girl'. Laserstein places the sisters very prominently in the pictorial space. This presence is reinforced by the insistent, clear gaze of the older girl. It seems as if she was aiming her gaze at the viewer, at the same time she sensitively observes her surroundings. The girls hold the ball together in an intimate bond, a rather unusual attribute for girls of the time, as ball games and sporting activities were more a male domain. Laserstein skillfully placed the girls' hands around the ball - eyes and hands are thoughtfully staged. The Jewish artist was at the height of her creative output in the early 1930s, as this double portrait impressively demonstrates. In line with Laserstein's ideas, the future belonged to these two determined and fearless girls. The portrait of the sisters should be seen as an image, an idea of their potential. Following her example, they should be part of a new generation of self-confident women who take their lives into their own hands. [AW/NK]