NOTES
Nude women in dramatic primary colors of red, yellow, and blue explore a wooded setting. Max Pechstein painted "Day of Steel" during his second visit to Nidden (present-day Nida, Lithuania), a fishing village on the Baltic Sea. Although Pechstein lived in the metropolis of Berlin, he relished his annual trips to the seaside as opportunities to find artistic inspiration in nature. The painting’s enigmatic title may reference the steely blue sky or, more allusively, nudist bathing as a “steeling” and revitalizing activity, particularly since Pechstein wrote of the dreadful weather that he experienced during his stay.
