With just a few gentle hints, Herbert Garbe teases the facial features of his wife, the sculptor Emy Roeder (1890–1971), out of this white, almost transparent stone. He made the portrait soon after they married. In the 1920s they both joined the Novembergruppe, the revolutionary association of artists, and took part in its exhibitions. In 1934 the couple separated, Garbe having joined the ruling Nazi party (NSDAP) the previous year. Roeder’s sculpture “Pregnant Woman” was included in the exhibition “Degenerate Art” in 1937. It was later given up for lost, but in 2010 the head was rediscovered during building work on the Berlin Palace.