Lotte Laserstein (1898–1993) is considered one of the outstanding realist painters of the first half of the 20th century. After the Berlin-based painter was forced to leave Germany in 1937 due to her Jewish heritage during the Nazi era, her body of work faded from the public eye in this country. It is only in recent years that public interest in her work has grown again, thanks in part to the major retrospective *Lotte Laserstein: My Only Reality*, which took place in 2003 at the Ephraim-Palais in Berlin.

Through the acquisition of Laserstein’s oil study *Female Nude Back* from ca. 1956—generously funded by the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation, the Cultural Foundation of the German States, and the Prussian Maritime Trade Foundation—the Gay Museum* aims to send a clear message and highlight the expansion of its collection’s focus. In addition to its exploration of male homosexuality, the museum has, for several years now, been placing greater emphasis on other non-conforming gender identities and sexual orientations, with female and lesbian life worlds playing a particularly important role.

Throughout her life, Lotte Laserstein cast a self-assured gaze on society’s constructed understanding of femininity. In her self-portraits, too, Laserstein challenged prevailing gender norms. In doing so, she often reflected on her own position as an artist in a male-dominated environment. In the pictorially rendered oil study *Female Nude from Behind*, the painter is present only through her attribute, the easel. In the foreground, she places her long-time model “Madeleine”—Margareta Jaraczewsky, an economist who had emigrated from Germany—whom she met in Stockholm in 1939 and frequently portrayed during her exile in her adopted homeland of Sweden. The artist herself remains as much of a blank space as the white sheet of paper in Madeleine’s hand. Whether the relationship between the painter and her model went beyond a platonic friendship is a matter of debate among scholars.

The Nude from Behind is one of the relatively rare independent works from Laserstein’s first two decades in Sweden. These “paintings created for her own sake” served as a necessary counterbalance to the externally dictated “painting for a living,” as Laserstein called it. This small-format painting belongs in the context of several preliminary studies for the lost painting *Painter and Model* (1956), which is documented by photographs of the work and in which Madeleine is also captured as a seductive nude from behind.

The Schwule Museum* thanks all three donors for their generous support. We also thank the colleagues whose expert opinions contributed to the successful acquisition, including Guido Fassbender of the Berlinische Galerie, Dr. Felix Krämer of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main, and, last but not least, Laserstein expert Anna Carola Krausse—curator of the aforementioned Berlin retrospective and author of the first catalog raisonné of Lotte Laserstein—for their support of this acquisition project.

“Works by the Berlin painter Lotte Laserstein have been part of the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation’s collection for quite some time now. Following the acquisitions of the paintings *Evening over Potsdam* for the National Gallery and *Self-Portrait at the Easel* for the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, it is now the oil sketch *Female Nude from Behind* that will enrich the collection of the Schwules Museum* in the future. “Securing this work for the public was a particularly important priority, especially since it is a high-quality sketch for the lost 1956 painting *Painter and Model*. Now, the *Female Nude from Behind* at the Schwules Museum* will serve as a reminder of the virtuoso skills of this long-forgotten artist,” says Dr. Martin Hoernes, Secretary General of the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation.

“Our support for the acquisition of Lotte Laserstein’s *Rückenakt* beautifully reflects our commitment to both the artist and the Schwules Museum*: As early as 2008, the Cultural Foundation of the German States contributed to the museum’s permanent collection by purchasing the collection of the museum’s co-founder, Dr. Andreas Sternweiler. In the 2015 exhibition *Homosexualität_en*, which received funding, the Schwules Museum* displayed a work by Laserstein for the first time. We are now very pleased to support the expansion of the collection’s focus on women’s lived experiences and, at the same time, to bring a forgotten Berlin artist back into the public consciousness.” Prof. Dr. Frank Druffner, Acting Secretary General of the Cultural Foundation of the German States The acquisition of Lotte Laserstein’s oil study is the very first new acquisition ever made by the Schwules Museum* since the purchase of the Sternweiler Collection in 2008, which was also partially funded by the Cultural Foundation of the German States. The contact with the seller—Swedish gallerist Mikael Amnell, who specializes in Laserstein’s work—and the efforts to convince funding agencies and experts were made possible by the dedication of Dr. Wolfgang Cortjaens, Director of Archives and Libraries. The ceremonial handover and the painting’s first public presentation will take place as part of the interim permanent exhibition *Tapetenwechsel*.