Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

In 1905, painter and printmaker Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, along with Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff—all untrained in the visual arts—founded the artists’ group Die Brücke, or “The Bridge,” a moment that is now considered the birth of German Expressionism. Impelled, in Kirchner’s words, to express themselves “directly and authentically,”1 they rejected academic art as stultifying and searched for means to make work that possessed a sense of immediacy and spontaneity. They culled inspiration from the emotionally expressive works of Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch; Oceanic and African art they encountered at ethnographic museums; and German Gothic and Renaissance art, which led them to enthusiastically embrace the woodcut, a print medium through which they pioneered their signature style, characterized by simplified forms, radical flattening, and vivid, non-naturalistic colors.
The Brücke artists craved to “bring life and art into harmony,”2 upending conventions in both to cultivate what they considered a more instinctual and natural way of being—a reaction shared with a larger German youth movement against new realities of urbanization and conservative imperial German society. In their communal studio, decorated with non-Western art and erotic images, they made life-drawings from nude models in unselfconscious, informal poses. They spent summers together with their girlfriends on lakes near Dresden, allowing nudity and free love to reign, and conjuring this bohemian existence in their works. Kirchner’s woodcut of four nudes moving tranquilly in a rhythmic frieze, Bathers Throwing Reeds (1909), typifies this period, embodying *Brücke*’s utopic vision of a world untouched by encroaching industrialization and other alienating forces of modern life.
Once Kirchner moved to Berlin, in 1911, and after Brücke disbanded, in 1913, he found a subject in Berlin itself, newly established as a cosmopolitan metropolis. He captured its hectic pace, chaotic intersections, and crowded sidewalks, focusing in particular on streetwalkers in his monumental series of 11 paintings known as Berlin Street Scenes. Among them is Street, Berlin (1913), in which two finely dressed prostitutes with mask-like faces command the center of the street as indistinguishable men lurk in their wake. Kirchner found in prostitutes an apt symbol for Berlin, where anything could be bought and the potential for intrigue or danger was folded into the experience of moving with the ever growing, anonymous crowds pulsing through the city.
At the outbreak of World War I, Kirchner volunteered for service, but he soon experienced a physical and mental breakdown and was discharged. After convalescing in sanatoriums near Davos, he spent the rest of his life in the area, portraying its rural scenery, mountains, and villagers in his work. He also began to experiment with abstraction, reflecting his goal for “the participation of present-day German art in the international modern sense of style.”3 But the Nazis deemed Kirchner’s art “un-German,” and in 1937, as part of their Degenerate Art campaign—waged against works of modern art, which they seized by the thousands from museums and private collections—they removed more than 600 of his paintings from public collections. The following year, he took his own life.
Introduction by Hillary Reder, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints, 2016
- Introduction
- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century art. He volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a breakdown and was discharged. His work was branded as "degenerate" by the Nazis in 1933, and in 1937 more than 600 of his works were sold or destroyed.
- Wikidata
- Q229272
- Introduction
- German painter. Comment on works: expressionist
- Nationality
- German
- Gender
- Male
- Roles
- Artist, Painter, Sculptor
- Names
- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Ernst-Ludwig Kirchner, Louis de Marsalle, ErnStLudwig Kirchner, E Kirchner, L. de Marselle, E. L. Kirchner, L. De Marsalle, Ernest Ludwig Kirchner, Kirchner, Emil Ludwig Kirchner, ludwig kirchner
- Ulan
- 500027704
Exhibitions
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504: New Expression in Germany and Austria
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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Artist’s Choice: Amy Sillman—The Shape of Shape
Oct 21, 2019–Oct 4, 2020
MoMA
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Painting and Sculpture Changes 2013
Jan 1–Dec 31, 2013
MoMA
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German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse
Mar 27–Jul 11, 2011
MoMA
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Kirchner and the Berlin Street
Aug 3–Nov 10, 2008
MoMA
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner has
107 exhibitionsonline.
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Chestnut Tree in the Moonlight (Kastanienbaum im Mondlicht) 1904
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Untitled (1906)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Signet/title vignette of the Brücke Artist's Group (Signet/Titelvignette Künstlergruppe Brücke) (1906)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Manifesto of the Brücke Artists' Group (Programm der Künstlergruppe Brücke) (1906)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Girl Before a Mirror (Mädchen vor Spiegel) (1907)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Three Women Conversing (Unterhaltung von drei Frauen) (1907)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Women's Band (Damenkapelle) (1908)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Streetlife in Dresden (Strassenleben in Dresden) 1908
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Still Life (Stilleben) from the portfolio Brücke 1908 1907, published 1908
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Streetlife in Dresden (Strassenleben in Dresden) (1908)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Streetcar Passengers (Passagiere in der Strassenbahn) (1908)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Nude Dancers (Nackte Tänzerinnen) 1909
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner The Blue House in the Potholder District (Das Blaue Haus im Topflappenviertel) (1909)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Nude Girl in the Bath (Nacktes Mädchen im Bad) (1909)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Seated Woman with Hat (Sitzende mit Hut) (1908-09)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Three Bathers at the Moritzburg Lakes (Drei Badende an den Moritzburger Seen) from Brücke 1910 1909, published 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Dancer with Raised Skirt (Tänzerin mit gehobenem Rock) from Brücke 1910 1909, published 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Bathers Throwing Reeds (Mit Schilf werfende Badende) from Brücke 1910 1909, published 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Gerty with Mask and Wineglass (Gerty mit Maske und Weinglas) 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Dancehall (Tanzsaal) (1910)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Two Nudes in a Landscape (Zwei Akte im Freien) c. 1908–10
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel Brücke 1910 Portfolio (Brücke 1910 Jahresmappe) 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Hannah Dancing (Hannah tanzend) 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Standing Girl, Caryatid 1909-10
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Various Artists, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Erich Heckel, Max Pechstein KG Brücke 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Rowing Samoan (Rudernde Samuanerin) (headpiece, folio 1) from KG Brücke 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Woman and Man (Mann und Frau) (plate, folio 2) from KG Brücke 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Bath House (Badehaus) (plate, folio 2 verso) from KG Brücke 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Seated Nude (Sitzender Akt) (plate, folio 7 verso) KG Brücke 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Sand Diggers at the Tiber River (Sandgräber am Tiber) (plate, folio 13) from KG Brücke 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Dance (Tanz) (plate, folio 14 verso) from KG Brücke 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Members of the Brücke Artists' Group (Titelvignette) [Mitglieder der Künstlergruppe Brücke (title vignette)] (plate, folio 16 verso) from KG Brücke 1910 (print executed 1907)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner PM (Passive Members) [PM (Passive Mitglieder)] (plate, folio 16 verso) from KG Brücke 1910 (print executed 1907)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner PM (Passive Members) [PM (Passive Mitglieder)] (plate, folio 17) from KG Brücke 1910 (print executed 1908)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner PM (Passive Mitglieder) [PM (Passive Members)] (plate, folio 17 verso) from KG Brücke 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner PM (Passive Members) [PM (Passive Mitglieder)] (plate, folio 18) from KG Brücke 1910
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Untitled (1909-1911)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Standing Nude, Signet of the Brücke Artists' Group (Stehender Akt, Signet der Künstlergruppe Brücke) (1911)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Vignette for the Annual Report 1910-1911 of the Brücke Artists' Group (Vignette zum Jahresbericht 1910-11 der Künstlergruppe Brücke) (1911)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Das Stiftsfräulein und der Tod (The Canoness and Death) (1912, published 1913)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Title page from the illustrated book Das Stiftsfräulein und der Tod (1912, published 1913)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Canoness at the Sewing Table (Stiftsfräulein am Nähtisch) from the illustrated book Das Stiftsfräulein und der Tod (The Canoness and Death) (1912, published 1913)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner The Canoness in the Lake (Das Stiftsfräulein im See) from the illustrated book Das Stiftsfräulein und der Tod (The Canoness and Death) (1912, published 1913)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Canoness in the Garden (Das Stiftsfräulein im Garten) from the illustrated book Das Stiftsfräulein und der Tod (The Canoness and Death) (1912, published 1913)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Dying Old Maid (Sterbendes altes Fräulein) from the illustrated book Das Stiftsfräulein und der Tod (The Canoness and Death) (1912, published 1913)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Woman Buttoning Her Shoe (Frau, Schuh zuknöpfend) (1912, published 1913)
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Street, Berlin 1913
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Gewecke and Erna (Gewecke und Erna) (1913)
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