Jurgis Preuss did the drawing in 1937. He did it with a lithocrayon on paper. The master depicted his first wife Gertrude Gennis in the genre of nude, the genre showing the beauty of a naked human body. This is a drawing from life done in a free and generalised manner. The artist took only one session to complete it. Jurgis Preuss made no special preparation for such portraits — sessions were spontaneous and occurred of their own free will. 

Preuss admired his wife in their daily life and, with a few lines, he tried to render the natural turn of her head, the voluptuous beauty of her body.

The young people got married in 1927, and Genya, as Jurgis called her, became everything for him – a true friend, a party comrade, a companion in life. They shared communist ideas, and when the Nazis came to power in Germany, they left the country. In the 1930s, they travelled a lot in Europe – they went to Finland, Sweden, Austria, Spain and some other countries.

In 1937, Preuss had his first solo exhibition in Paris. It was held in the gallery of Dutchman Van Leer in Rue Bonaparte. At the time, the French press wrote: ‘The exhibition presents a personality characterised by integrity, finesse and lyricism <…> we would refer the artist to those who the French call intimists’.

Intimism is not singled out as a separate artistic movement, it is rather considered to be a stylistic trend. Intimists noted very ordinary things which happen in any person’s life. They painted portraits of their loved ones sitting over a book or a craft; morning chores, interiors, or walks. One of the best known intimists was Pierre Bonnard.