Sale: 530 / Evening Sale / The Hermann Gerlinger Collection, June 10. 2022 in Munich Lot 10

 

10
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Nacktes Paar auf einem Kanapee, 1909.
Woodcut
Estimate:
€ 70,000 / $ 75,600
Sold:
€ 112,500 / $ 121,500

(incl. surcharge)
Nacktes Paar auf einem Kanapee. 1909.
Woodcut.
Gercken 291. Dube 127. Schiefler H.111. Verso with the estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and the hand-written registration number "H 111 I D / Ab 10". One of just five known copies. On grayish board. 65.7 x 48 cm (25.8 x 18.8 in). Sheet: 68,6 x 48,7 cm (26,3 x 19,2 in).
[CH].

• One of five known copies of which one is in the 'Graphische Sammlung' at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.
• Over the past 30 years only one other copy of this woodcut has been offered on the international auction market.
• In their graphic art Kirchner and the other "Brücke" members realized their new and unconventional conception of art and revived the then little popular medium
.

The work is documented at the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern.

PROVENANCE: Artist's estate (Davos 1938, Kunstmuseum Basel 1946, with the hand-numbered estate stamp on the reverse).
Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett Roman Norbert Ketterer, Stuttgart (1954).
Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin (1988).
Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Würzburg (with the collector stamp, acquired from the above in 1988).

EXHIBITION: (E. L. Kirchner, Kunsthalle Basel, 2.9.-15.10.1967, Kat.-Nr. 99 (ein anderes Exemplar).
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Haus der Kunst, Munich, February 9 - April 13, 1980; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, April 26 - June 8, 1980; Kunsthaus Zürich, June 20 - August 10, 1980; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, West-Berlin, November 29, 1979 - January 20, 1980, cat. no. 50 (with illu., different copy).
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in der Graphischen Sammlung der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, June 14 - August 31, 980, cat. no. 99 (with illu. on p. 75, different copy).
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Meisterwerke der Druckgraphik, Brücke-Museum, Berlin, November 10, 1990 - January 27, 1991; Museum Folkwang, Essen, February 10 - April 28, 1991; Kunsthalle Bremen, May 12 - July 7, 1991, cat. no. 26 (different copy)
Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 1995-2001).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2001-2017).
Expressiv! Die Künstler der Brücke. Die Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Albertina, Vienna, June 1 - August 26, 2007, cat. no. 126, p. 206 (with illu.).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Heinz Spielmann (editor), Die Maler der Brücke. Colleciton Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 141, SHG no. 119 (with illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (editors), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 300, SHG no. 678 (with illu.).
Brückenschlag: Gerlinger - Buchheim! Museumsführer durch die "Brücke"-Sammlungen von Hermann Gerlinger und Lothar-Günther Buchheim, Feldafing 2017, p. 86 (with illu. on p. 87).

"The 'Brücke' artist made their perhaps most important contribution to art history with their revolutionary print art."
Prof. Günther Gercken, in: Ex. cat. Brücke. Die Geburt des deutschen Expressionismus, Berlin 2005/06, p. 57.

Scenes with naked people in free movement in the studio are at the forefront of Kirchner's artistic work. The studio is the place where the artist seamlessly connects life and art. Kirchner lives there with his companions, who are always also models for the artistic work, despite the miserable living conditions, still protected from the incomprehension of the outside world. Kirchner found the motifs there in the studio. In his studio, the free life of an artist merged seamlessly into artistic work. Here it is the depiction of a naked couple conversing on a sofa, he seated and supporting his head, she lying relaxed on her back. "I only worked freely at home. I often got up in the middle of coitus to note a movement, an expression," Kirchner wrote in his Davos diary in 1923 about the intimate and at the same time artistic interaction with the people in the studio (ed. by Lothar Grisebach, Cologne 1968, p. 63, entry March 1, 1923). If one follows the statement in this quote, it does not seem unreasonable to assume that Kirchner cut himself and his lover and partner Dodo (Doris Grosse) with the striking hairstyle into the large-format wooden stick. He created the play of line and surface with incredible certainty, with which he retraced the harmonious bodies in the composition. [MvL]



10
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Nacktes Paar auf einem Kanapee, 1909.
Woodcut
Estimate:
€ 70,000 / $ 75,600
Sold:
€ 112,500 / $ 121,500

(incl. surcharge)