Color chalks Colored chalk and pencil. With the estate stamp (Lugt 1570 b) and the handwritten number "St. 114" on the reverse. On fine wove paper. 20.2 x 15.6 cm. , the full sheet. [CH]. - E. L. Kirchner's "Berlin Street Scenes" are regarded as the absolute highlight of his artistic oeuvre. - In 1911, the artist moved to Berlin and began to process his impressions of life in the streets of Berlin in drawings, prints and paintings. - With a multitude of figures, its dense composition, dynamic strokes and bold colors, this drawing perfectly captures the hustle and bustle of a modern city. - Part of a comprehensive retrospective exhibition in Seattle, Boston and Pasedena in 1968/69. - Consistent provenance. - E. L. Kirchner's famous “Street Scene” drawings in such an elaborate color scheme are extremely rare on the international auction market (source: artprice.com). This work is documented in the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern. LITERATURE: Magdalena M. Moeller, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Die Straßenszenen 1913-1915, Munich 1993, p. 177, cat. no. 26 (full-page illu. in color).
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. A Retrospective Exhibition, Seattle Art Museum, November 23, 1968 - January 5, 1969; Pasedena Art Museum, January 6 - February 23, 1969; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March 20 - April 27, 1969, cat. no. 85 (illu.). Künstler der Brücke in Berlin 1908-1914, Brücke Museum, Berlin, September 1 - November 26, 1972, cat. no. 1 (illu., plate 18). Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin, April 7 - September 8, 2006, cat. no. 51 (illu.). De Tiepolo à Richter. L'Europe en dialogue, Musée Arte & Histoire, Brussels, May 24 - September 30, 2018
Artist's estate (Davos 1938, Kunstmuseum Basel 1946, with the estate stamp on the reverse). Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin (acquired from the above). Wolfgang Wittrock art dealership, Berlin (acquired from the above in 2007). Olbricht Collection, Essen/Berlin (acquired from the above in 2007)
After the seminal, formative "Brücke" years in Dresden, E. L. Kirchner followed his fellow artists Hermann Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller to the metropolis of Berlin in the fall of 1911.Around 1900, the city hadnot onlygrown to become one of the most exciting cultural centersbut was alsothe fastest-growing city in Europe.After the turn of the century, life in Berlin was buzzing: Department stores, bars, theaters, and dance halls sprang up. The parallel worlds of splendor and misery, poverty, unemployment, and prostitution, modernity, upheaval, and sophisticated prosperity, as well as the fast pace of life and the masses of people living in a confinedspaceoverwhelmed but also inspired him to his more mature "Berlin style",which would yield some of the most important works in his artistic oeuvre, including his famous "Street Scenes",which are now consideredkeyworks of German Expressionism. The few paintings in this series are now in important museums, among them the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, the Nationalgalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, the Museum Folkwang, Essen, the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, the Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. E. L. Kirchner arrived at these outstanding compositions through drawing. In fleeting sketches, but also in more complex, elaborate, and sometimes - as is the case in our work - colorful compositions, and later also in large-format sheets (e.g. "Berliner Straßenszene", c. 1914, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main), the artist creates dynamic and tangible documents of his impressions of Berlin. A portrait of the anonymous mass of people in the modern city. In the glaring artificial light of the streetlights and shop windows, passers-by stand close together, meeting, talking to each other, or turning away from each other. Kirchner observed the hustle and bustle of the town, capturing it with a focused gaze, reducing the surroundings and yet concentrating on the monumental nature of the city. Strong strokes with colored chalks emphasize the figures' contours, setting them off against the background of the facades in neon lights. Looking back on his own "street scenes" in 1925, Kirchner wrote under a pseudonym: "Kirchner found that the feeling that lies over a city is represented in the form of lines of force. In the way people compose themselves in the crowd, indeed in the way they walk, he found the means to capture the experience. There are pictures and prints by him where a pure framework of lines with almost schematic figures depicts street life in the most lively way." (Kirchner as "Louis de Marsalle" on his own work, quoted from: Lothar Grisebach, E. L. Kirchner's Davos Diary, Wichtrach/Bern 1997, p. 78) [CH/MvL]
Dense composition in good condition. Sheet minimally browned. Narrow vertical crease in the center of the lower half of the image. The lower right corner of the sheet with a small diagonal crease. On the reverse of the upper margin of the sheet with old mounting residue, very minimally pressing through to recto. The handwritten number on the estate stamp (reverse) also slightly showing through to recto.
Lot Details
Color chalks Colored chalk and pencil. With the estate stamp (Lugt 1570 b) and the handwritten number "St. 114" on the reverse. On fine wove paper. 20.2 x 15.6 cm. , the full sheet. [CH]. - E. L. Kirchner's "Berlin Street Scenes" are regarded as the absolute highlight of his artistic oeuvre. - In 1911, the artist moved to Berlin and began to process his impressions of life in the streets of Berlin in drawings, prints and paintings. - With a multitude of figures, its dense composition, dynamic strokes and bold colors, this drawing perfectly captures the hustle and bustle of a modern city. - Part of a comprehensive retrospective exhibition in Seattle, Boston and Pasedena in 1968/69. - Consistent provenance. - E. L. Kirchner's famous “Street Scene” drawings in such an elaborate color scheme are extremely rare on the international auction market (source: artprice.com). This work is documented in the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern. LITERATURE: Magdalena M. Moeller, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Die Straßenszenen 1913-1915, Munich 1993, p. 177, cat. no. 26 (full-page illu. in color).
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. A Retrospective Exhibition, Seattle Art Museum, November 23, 1968 - January 5, 1969; Pasedena Art Museum, January 6 - February 23, 1969; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March 20 - April 27, 1969, cat. no. 85 (illu.). Künstler der Brücke in Berlin 1908-1914, Brücke Museum, Berlin, September 1 - November 26, 1972, cat. no. 1 (illu., plate 18). Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin, April 7 - September 8, 2006, cat. no. 51 (illu.). De Tiepolo à Richter. L'Europe en dialogue, Musée Arte & Histoire, Brussels, May 24 - September 30, 2018
Artist's estate (Davos 1938, Kunstmuseum Basel 1946, with the estate stamp on the reverse). Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin (acquired from the above). Wolfgang Wittrock art dealership, Berlin (acquired from the above in 2007). Olbricht Collection, Essen/Berlin (acquired from the above in 2007)
After the seminal, formative "Brücke" years in Dresden, E. L. Kirchner followed his fellow artists Hermann Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller to the metropolis of Berlin in the fall of 1911.Around 1900, the city hadnot onlygrown to become one of the most exciting cultural centersbut was alsothe fastest-growing city in Europe.After the turn of the century, life in Berlin was buzzing: Department stores, bars, theaters, and dance halls sprang up. The parallel worlds of splendor and misery, poverty, unemployment, and prostitution, modernity, upheaval, and sophisticated prosperity, as well as the fast pace of life and the masses of people living in a confinedspaceoverwhelmed but also inspired him to his more mature "Berlin style",which would yield some of the most important works in his artistic oeuvre, including his famous "Street Scenes",which are now consideredkeyworks of German Expressionism. The few paintings in this series are now in important museums, among them the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, the Nationalgalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, the Museum Folkwang, Essen, the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, the Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. E. L. Kirchner arrived at these outstanding compositions through drawing. In fleeting sketches, but also in more complex, elaborate, and sometimes - as is the case in our work - colorful compositions, and later also in large-format sheets (e.g. "Berliner Straßenszene", c. 1914, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main), the artist creates dynamic and tangible documents of his impressions of Berlin. A portrait of the anonymous mass of people in the modern city. In the glaring artificial light of the streetlights and shop windows, passers-by stand close together, meeting, talking to each other, or turning away from each other. Kirchner observed the hustle and bustle of the town, capturing it with a focused gaze, reducing the surroundings and yet concentrating on the monumental nature of the city. Strong strokes with colored chalks emphasize the figures' contours, setting them off against the background of the facades in neon lights. Looking back on his own "street scenes" in 1925, Kirchner wrote under a pseudonym: "Kirchner found that the feeling that lies over a city is represented in the form of lines of force. In the way people compose themselves in the crowd, indeed in the way they walk, he found the means to capture the experience. There are pictures and prints by him where a pure framework of lines with almost schematic figures depicts street life in the most lively way." (Kirchner as "Louis de Marsalle" on his own work, quoted from: Lothar Grisebach, E. L. Kirchner's Davos Diary, Wichtrach/Bern 1997, p. 78) [CH/MvL]
Dense composition in good condition. Sheet minimally browned. Narrow vertical crease in the center of the lower half of the image. The lower right corner of the sheet with a small diagonal crease. On the reverse of the upper margin of the sheet with old mounting residue, very minimally pressing through to recto. The handwritten number on the estate stamp (reverse) also slightly showing through to recto.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 
