Lithograph
Dube L 449. With estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570b) and the hand-written registration number "L Da/Bd 1 II" on verso. On light creme Japon. 32,7 x 27,4 cm (12,8 x 10,7 in)Sheet: 40,8 x 33,5 cm (16 x 13,1 in).
This unusual sheet has never been offered on the auction market (source: artnet.com).

This work is registered in the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Southern Germany.

Kirchner studied architecture in Dresden where he met and worked with Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. After finishing his studies, however, he opposed his father's wishes and decided to become a painter. The intense artistic and intellectual relationship between the four artists soon led to the formation of the artist group 'Die Brücke', which, according to Schmidt-Rottluff, wanted to "attract all revolutionary and restless forces". The artists began to work on the ’Viertelstundenakte', drawings on nude models in the studio or in open nature. At first the group oriented itself to artists from Late Impressionism. The discovery of the Fauves, South Seas' art and van Gogh led the painters to Expressionism. Due to the encounter with Italian Futurist works, the group's painting style changed and became ’tougher'. Kirchner studied the sculptures at the Völkerkundemuseum in Dresden, which influenced his own wood sculptures. In 1911 Kirchner moved to Berlin. Here Kirchner discovered new motifs - city and street scenes. He painted them in a simplified manner, with sharply contoured forms, expressive features and clashing colors. The city paintings became incunables of Expressionism and made Kirchner one of the most important German artists of the 20th century. The beginning of world war I and the following years were a turning point in his life. The war experiences and military service caused an existential angst and led to illness and long stays in sanatoriums. The more remarkable was his artistic production of that time. Works like the woodcut ‚Frauen am Potsdamer Platz' , the ‚Bilder zu Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl', the self-portraits and woodcut pictures from the sanatoriums, which are counted among the highlights of his œuvre, came into existence. In 1917 Kirchner settled in Frauenkirch near Davos. The city scenes were now replaced by mountain landscapes and scenes of rural life. Around 1920 his painting style calmed down, his paintings had a carpet-like two dimensionality. Beside Kirchner also produced an extensive graphic work - wood cuts, lithographs and ink drawings. In 1923 Kirchner moved to the ’Haus auf dem Wildboden' at the entrance of the Sertig Valley.

In his sport illustrations from the 1930s, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner tried to depict the athletes‘ motions by means of dynamic lines. The slight astraction of the subject is presumably due to the same intention. His etchings from those days fulfill the artistic intention that Kirchner described as follows: "It is, of course, my desire to bring line and surface to life, however, just more pristine than before. I never painted reality, but phenomena. Now that I have gained certain control over the surface after years of training [..], today I can charge the line and the surface with ecstasy, thus the image’s statement is more direct than it used to be." (translation of quote after: Annemarie Dube-Heynig, E.L. Kirchner. Graphik, Munich 1961, p. 130).

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner committed suicide in 1938. [KD].