Frauenkopf mit Hut. 1917.
Pencil drawing.
With the estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and the hand-written registration number "B Da/Ba 21" on the reverse. On firm wove paper. 50 x 38 cm (19.6 x 14.9 in), almost the full sheet. [CH].

• Dynamic portrait sketch with Kirchner's typical expressive, nervous lines.
• In the year of his creation, Kirchner left the big city of Berlin and, after a stay in a sanatorium in Kreuzlingen on Lake Constance, visited the Swiss mountains around Davos for the first time, where he was to spend the longest period of his life in the years that followed.
• The portraits of his fellow men play an important role in his entire oeuvre of drawings, paintings and photographs.

The work is registered in the Hermann Gerlinger Collection with the number SHG 774 a.

PROVENANCE: Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp, Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2001-2017).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2017-2022).

"Indeed, in terms of quality, quantity, variety, and significance, Kirchner's drawing is singular in the history of this art technique, incomparable to any other artist."
Dr. Wolfgang Henze, in: Kirchner der Zeichner Am Beispiel seines Menschenbildes 1909-1936.

Good overall impression. With isolated pressure marks, fingerprints, soiling and rubbing. Right edge with two backed tears (up to 2.5 cm), not affecting the image. Upper left with a clear brownish trace of soiling. [JS]