Heimkehrender Heuer. 1918.
Oil on canvas.
Not in Gordon. Signed and dated (Erna Schilling) in upper left. Verso signed, dated and inscribed. 80 x 70 cm (31.4 x 27.5 in).
The work is also known by the titles "Abstieg" and "Die Familie des Bauern Martin Schmid auf dem Wege nach der Stafelalp".
• From the important collection Gustav Ferdinand Jung, by which Ernst Gosebruch, former director of the Museum Folkwang, was ravished
• A true serendipity - up until 1981 the work remained unknown to both public and research
• One of the first works made on the Safelalp with the strong color contrasts and in the nervous painting manner call reminiscence of the Berlin days.

Accompanied by a written confirmation issued by Dr. Wolfgang Henze, Wichtrach/Bern, on May 8, 2020. This work is documented at the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern, and will be included into the addenda of the catalog raisonné.

PROVENANCE: Collection Gustav Ferdinand Jung, Hagen.
Private collection Southern Germany (since 1985).

LITERATURE: Sotheby’s, London, December 2, 1981, lot 145.
Galerie Kornfeld, Bern, June 21, 1985, lot 92.
Gabriele Lohberg, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Die Fotografien im Bestand des Kirchner Museums Davos, 1994, p. 20 with illu.
Hans Delfs, Mario von Lüttichau, Roland Scotti, Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff, Nolde, Nay .. Briefe an den Sammler und Mäzen Carl Hagemann, 2004, p. 647.
"I was absolutely taken the other day."
Ernst Gosebruch, former director of Museum Folkwang, about the collection Gustav Ferdinand Jung, Hagen.
"I am so happy to be here. On good days I can get a little work done among these good and simple people. In this solitude I was able to find a way allowing me to exist despite all my suffering. My days of circus, whores and play are over […]. Here I found new tasks right in front of me.“
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in a letter to Henry van de Velde, 1919, quote from an ex. cat.