Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: 11 works

'Kirchner clearly refrains from following an academic ideal of beauty, instead creating a color environment that is detached from the example of nature.'

'Presumably it is the first encounter between Marcella and Senta in the Dresden Brücke atelier, which Kirchner painted here; both girls became a frequent motif of the Brücke artists (1905--13).'

'The painting was made during a time in which Kirchner had discovered for himself the "beautiful, architecturally-constructed, precisely-shaped bodies" of his future wife, Erna Schilling, and her sister, which -- as the artist himself put it -- redeemed "the soft Saxon body."'

'In 1912, he returned to Fehmarn in late July, this time from Berlin, accompanied by Erna Schilling, his close companion since the Berlin period.'

'As one of the founding artists of 'Die Brücke' group in 1905, Kirchner is essential to the history of German expressionism, a movement he virtually personifies. Trained in Munich and Dresden, he was attracted to neo-impressionism, van Gogh and tribal artefacts, combining influences from all three in his searingly emotional paintings, drawings and prints.'

'Heckel's and Kirchner's artistic interest in dance was due not only to its status in the popular culture of the day; it also was personally motivated: Erich Heckel married Milda Frieda Georgi, who was well-known under her pseudonym of Sidi Riha in Berlin dance circles and Kirchner's companion Erna Schilling and her younger sister Gerda were also dancers.'

'A pivotal figure of the German Expressionist movement, Kirchner first met Müller, also a painter-printmaker, in 1910. Müller then joined "Die Brücke" (The Bridge), the group Kirchner had helped found in 1905, which was instrumental in promoting Expressionism.'

'This composition, with its deliberate brushstrokes and forceful use of outline, articulates both Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's and Die Brücke's intent to reveal raw emotion without apologies. Lina Franziska Fehrmann (1900-1950), the adolescent model for Seated Girl, met Kirchner in 1910.'

'During pre-World War I years, Kirchner and fellow members of the Dresden/Berlin-based artist group, Die Brücke (The Bridge), sought a similar reconnection with nature by spending their summers camping at nearby lakes and on the North Sea island of Fehmarn.'

'Kaffeetisch (Coffee Table) is a typical interior for Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and, according to the artist, "is especially interesting in terms of color."'

'In the 1920s, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner painted increasing numbers of nudes. In the summers of 1924 and 1925, when the artist's pupils were up in the mountains with their wives and girlfriends, their nude bathing parties in the mountain streams around Davos (Switzerland) gave rise to uninhibited scenes like those Kirchner had painted beside the Moritzburg lakes and on the Baltic Sea beaches of Fehmarn.'