A deep melancholy speaks from many of Anita Rée's works. Especially in her self-portraits, she often appears sad and hopeless, disappointed by the world and people. This is despite the fact that at the time of their creation, the artist was at the peak of her career and was successful with her paintings, which were influenced by the contemporary avant-garde, not only in her native Germany but also abroad. The sadness evident in her work is often interpreted today as a kind of foreshadowing of the tragedy in the making in her life. For Anita Reh came from a Jewish family on her father's side. And so she was increasingly exposed to anti-Semitic hostility in the 1930s. Her art was finally classified as "degenerate" by the National Socialists. This affected the highly sensitive artist to such an extent that she committed suicide in 1933.

The fact that a large number of Anita Rée's works have survived at all and that the artist has not been forgotten is thanks to an art-loving janitor. Wilhelm Werner, as the industrious spirit was called, was employed at the Kunsthalle Hamburg. In 1937, he saved several works by Anita Rée from confiscation and destruction by the National Socialists. Werner had hidden them in his official apartment. After the war, he quietly and secretly returned the paintings to the depot. It was only after his death that this rescue operation became known and Wilhelm Werner was recognized as its author.

Anita Reé is known for impressionist open-air painting and cubist-Mediterranean landscapes as well as for neo-objective portraits. Today, among other things, more than 30 paintings and numerous graphics of the multifaceted artist are in the Hamburg Kunsthalle. Also in the international art trade, works by Anita Rée appear again and again and achieve record prices at art auctions, such as the painting "Blue Woman", which was auctioned for no less than 875,000 euros.

Late honors for a woman who did not have it easy even at the beginning of her career as an artist. Born into the wealthy Hamburg upper class, the young Anita was able to attend the Hamburg School of Painting and even study in Paris. But her artistic ambitions met with very little understanding from her family. Painting was accepted as a suitable leisure activity for the older daughter. But her strict mother, in particular, could not approve of or understand the idea of turning it into a profession. Fortunately for the art world, Anita Reh was not deterred and went her way - even if not exactly in rosy financial circumstances and often tormented by melancholy and anxiety. But that, she once said herself, was the price of being allowed to do what fills the heart.