Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (Aschaffenburg, in Bavaria, on May 6th 1880 - June 15th 1938), painter of the German Expressionnisme, is a founder of association Die Brücke.

Biography

He studies architecture with the technical university of Dresden where he meets, initially, Fritz Bleyl, then Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, flux with them four, the group Die Brücke. They are not claimed of any influence, even if Kirchner discovered the concept of " drawing rapide" in other contemporary painters.

It is interested much in engraving on wood and its style evolves to the simplification of the features, making visible the work of wood on final engraving. The reopening of the ethnographic museum of Dresden in 1910 causes a new source of inspiration, based on the primitive art.

It settles starting from 1911 with Berlin and hardly likes itself it initially. It painted there many scenes of street and night life. It meets there Erna Schilling , a cabaret dancer, which becomes its model then his/her partner, until the death of the painter. It rests Berliner life by making frequent stays in the island of Fehnmarn.

It engages in 1915 in the army but is released two months hardly later for health issues (lung disease, depressive state and consumption of alcohol and narcotics). It then makes several stays in sanatorium with which it decorates certain walls (Königstein im Taunus in Thuringe). It settles in 1917 with Davos in Switzerland, where it paints many landscapes.

The young person Robert Wehrlin, come to return visit to his mother to Davos, gives up his studies of right to direct itself towards painting, after having attended Ernst Ludwig Kirchner regularly.

Kirchner also writes a certain number of articles under the pseudonym of Louis de Marsalle . In 1937, in full rise of the Nazism, its art is described as “degenerated” and much of its work are destroyed. It commits suicide with Davos in 1938.

Works (selection)

1907, Self-portrait with the model , 150 X 100 cm, Hamburger Kunsthalle
1910, Artist (Marzella)
1910, Fränzi, in front of the chair out of wooden
1910, Naked playing under a tree 77 X 89 cm
1911, Woman with the hat , Ludwig Museum, Cologne
1911, Cyclist
1913, Woman in front of the mirror
1913, Scene of Street in Berlin
1914, Potsdamer Platz , Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin
1915, the red Tower in Hall , Folkwang Museum, Essen, the painter like soldier
1919, Landscape of the moon of winter ,
1920, Cows in the forest
1923, Man (Statue out of wooden)
1923, Black Spring
1925, a community of artists

Polemic around the restitution of the Scene of street in Berlin

Painting Scène of street in Berlin of 1913 is one of the most important works of the German expressionnism. In August 2006, the Senator of the Culture of Berlin (of gauche.PDS) recognized that the Land of Berlin, had despoiled an alive Jewish collector on the American territory. In 1980, the Land repurchased this table for the equivalent of 800.000 € and exposed it to Berliner Brücke-Museum. Stormy debates had then taken place because it had clearly been established that the table had sold by the widow of the collector, then exiled in Switzerland. The President of the friends of the Museums, Lutz von Pfufendorf, reported that the factory of shoes of the collector had gone bankrupt under the Nazis. In the need, the Hess family then had to sell several tables of her collection. The sale of the Scène of Street in 1936 benefitted the German industrialist Carl Hagemann known to have been a friend close to the painter. It bought it 5000 Marks. For Wolfgang Henze, the Director of the Ernst-Ludwig-Kirchner Files in Switzerland, this price was high for a work of this artist at the time.

The institutions however defended themselves by indicating that national and international conventions on the restitution of the works of art which were seized by the national Socialists - inter alia the convention of Washington according to which in such cases of restitution the burden of proof is reversed. The Land of Berlin should have proven - to keep the table - that the Hess widow had received a suitable purchase price.

After the restitution, the fabric was sold with the biddings on November 8th, 2006 at Christie' S with New York for almost 30 million Dollars. The lawyer of Munich Daniel Amelung tried, until the last minute, to prevent the auction, by submitting to the public ministry of Berlin a request against the mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD) because of a suspicion of disloyalty. In vain.

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