Pechstein was a Dresden-trained artist who joined the German Expressionist group called Die Brücke (The Bridge) in 1906, a year after the group had been started by Ernst Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rotluff, and Fritz Bleyl. Formed in reaction to Impressionism, which these artists associated with bourgeois values, the movement fostered the wide dissemination of art through prints, especially woodcuts. The Brücke artists favored spontaneous execution, and by 1910 they had evolved a signature style of colored, planar forms.

      Pechstein's woodcut of 1923, Dancer Reflected in a Mirror, reveals that the influence of the Brücke continued to mark his work even after World War I. Here the distortions of form, bold carving of the woodblock, strident colors, and roughness of ink application create visual excitement and tension. Through these harsh, even brutal stylistic qualities, Pechstein heightened the disturbing aspects of the lewd subject matter: an automatonlike dancer whose reflection in the mirror intensifies her physical presence as she performs for leering male onlookers. The theme of the dancer had been important for the Brücke group before the war, and for Pechstein there were personal parallels. Like the dancer forced to prostitute herself before an audience, he felt compelled to produce art that met the demands of dealer and public.

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