Lot 277
Frame image
Raumbeispiel
277
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Unterhaltung, 1923.
Watercolor and ink brush over chalk drawing
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 34,800 Sold:
€ 38,700 / $ 44,892 (incl. surcharge)
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
1880 - 1938
Unterhaltung. 1923.
Watercolor and ink brush over chalk drawing.
Signed in the upper left and in the center at the top. Verso with the estate stamp (Lugt 1570 b) and the handwritten numbering “A Da/Bi 10". On firm, smooth wove paper. 35 x 47 cm (13.7 x 18.5 in), the full sheet. [CH].
• A colorful watercolor painting featuring many figures from Kirchner's time in Davos.
• The convivial scene probably shows E. L. Kirchner himself, his partner Erna Schilling, and a guest, presumably the art collector and critic Gustav Schiefler, who visited the artist in Davos in June 1923.
• Gesamtkunstwerk: In the watercolor, Kirchner displays some of his self-carved furniture, including a bench backrest with mother and child figures, completed in the year this watercolor was created (cf. CR Henze 193/02).
• The furnishings depicted can also be found in the painting “Kaffeetisch” (Gordon 754, Folkwang Museum, Essen) from the same year, which is closely related to this watercolor in terms of motif and color.
This work is documented in the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern.
PROVENANCE: Artist's estate (Davos 1938, Kunstmuseum Basel 1946).
Galerie Elfriede Wirnitzer, Baden-Baden.
Private collection, northern Germany.
Private collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above in 2006, Villa Grisebach, Berlin).
Art trade, Germany (acquired from the above).
Private collection, northern Germany (acquired from the above).
Acquired by the current owner from the above.
LITERATURE: Weinmüller Auction House, Munich, 97th auction, catalog 105, Modern Art, November 5, 1965, lot 140 (with illustration, plate 62).
Grisebach Auctions, Berlin, 134th auction, Selected Works, May 26, 2006, lot 43 (with color illustration, p. 74).
1880 - 1938
Unterhaltung. 1923.
Watercolor and ink brush over chalk drawing.
Signed in the upper left and in the center at the top. Verso with the estate stamp (Lugt 1570 b) and the handwritten numbering “A Da/Bi 10". On firm, smooth wove paper. 35 x 47 cm (13.7 x 18.5 in), the full sheet. [CH].
• A colorful watercolor painting featuring many figures from Kirchner's time in Davos.
• The convivial scene probably shows E. L. Kirchner himself, his partner Erna Schilling, and a guest, presumably the art collector and critic Gustav Schiefler, who visited the artist in Davos in June 1923.
• Gesamtkunstwerk: In the watercolor, Kirchner displays some of his self-carved furniture, including a bench backrest with mother and child figures, completed in the year this watercolor was created (cf. CR Henze 193/02).
• The furnishings depicted can also be found in the painting “Kaffeetisch” (Gordon 754, Folkwang Museum, Essen) from the same year, which is closely related to this watercolor in terms of motif and color.
This work is documented in the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern.
PROVENANCE: Artist's estate (Davos 1938, Kunstmuseum Basel 1946).
Galerie Elfriede Wirnitzer, Baden-Baden.
Private collection, northern Germany.
Private collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above in 2006, Villa Grisebach, Berlin).
Art trade, Germany (acquired from the above).
Private collection, northern Germany (acquired from the above).
Acquired by the current owner from the above.
LITERATURE: Weinmüller Auction House, Munich, 97th auction, catalog 105, Modern Art, November 5, 1965, lot 140 (with illustration, plate 62).
Grisebach Auctions, Berlin, 134th auction, Selected Works, May 26, 2006, lot 43 (with color illustration, p. 74).
After several extended stays in Davos, E. L. Kirchner and his partner Erna Schilling finally moved to Switzerland in 1923, the year this work was created. In Davos, he moved into the "Wildbodenhaus" above and north of the Sertig Valley. Here, the couple built a simple, rustic life with few amenities. The Alpine landscape, the special, albeit labor-intensive life of the local farming families, and the rural, bucolic idyll were important sources of inspiration for Kirchner during these years. With impressive creative energy, he worked on prints, drawings, watercolors, paintings, and even wooden sculptures and furniture for his home in the Wildbodenhaus. Like some of his like-minded artist friends, Kirchner wanted a life far away from the established, bourgeois way of life. Together with Erna, he therefore furnished the simple house in Switzerland with exotic furniture, some of which he designed and made himself, drawing inspiration for the elaborate carvings from African and Swiss folk art, among other sources.
Seated in a casual, comfortable pose on one of these pieces of furniture, a chair carved by Kirchner himself, is an elderly gentleman in a blue suit, who could be the art patron and critic Gustav Schiefler (1857–1935), whose visit in June, just a few months before our work was created, is depicted here. Schiefler and Kirchner are engaged in an intensive correspondence, as Schiefler is working intensively during these months on a catalog of E. L. Kirchner's graphic works, the first volume of which is published in 1926. The chair is most likely "Chair III" from 1920 (Wolfgang Henze, Catalog Raisonné of Sculptures, 1920/05), on which Kirchner designed a female nude on the backrest. On the right of the picture, the backrest of a red-painted pine bench can be seen, which in reality consists of a carved female nude and two small child figures and which Kirchner completed shortly before creating our work (Henze, 1923/02).
The present work impressively illustrates the artist's creative power during these years: The dynamic watercolor, rendered in bold, expressive colors, not only depicts a convivial, possibly evening scene in the newly occupied "Wildbodenhaus," but also showcases the elaborate seating furniture designed and carved by Kirchner himself, of which only a few pieces remain today. [CH]
Seated in a casual, comfortable pose on one of these pieces of furniture, a chair carved by Kirchner himself, is an elderly gentleman in a blue suit, who could be the art patron and critic Gustav Schiefler (1857–1935), whose visit in June, just a few months before our work was created, is depicted here. Schiefler and Kirchner are engaged in an intensive correspondence, as Schiefler is working intensively during these months on a catalog of E. L. Kirchner's graphic works, the first volume of which is published in 1926. The chair is most likely "Chair III" from 1920 (Wolfgang Henze, Catalog Raisonné of Sculptures, 1920/05), on which Kirchner designed a female nude on the backrest. On the right of the picture, the backrest of a red-painted pine bench can be seen, which in reality consists of a carved female nude and two small child figures and which Kirchner completed shortly before creating our work (Henze, 1923/02).
The present work impressively illustrates the artist's creative power during these years: The dynamic watercolor, rendered in bold, expressive colors, not only depicts a convivial, possibly evening scene in the newly occupied "Wildbodenhaus," but also showcases the elaborate seating furniture designed and carved by Kirchner himself, of which only a few pieces remain today. [CH]
277
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Unterhaltung, 1923.
Watercolor and ink brush over chalk drawing
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 34,800 Sold:
€ 38,700 / $ 44,892 (incl. surcharge)
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