After his breakup with Alma Mahler, Kokoschka, in deepest desperation, ordered a life-size doll from a doll-maker in Munich which should resemble Alma in every detail, and he thought it would help him console himself for the loss of his loved one. Not surprisingly, the result was disappointing: a clumsy construction of fabric and wood-wool, which Kokoschka had beheaded at a wild, orgiastic party in his atelier in Dresden, in 1919. And so he separated himself from the curse of his life, Alma, in effigy form.
delirium clemens 