Stehender weiblicher Rückenakt. Um 1911/12.
Pen and India ink drawing.
With estate stamp of Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570b) and with registration number "F Be/Bg 61" on verso. On light creme wove paper. 34,3 x 26,2 cm (13,5 x 10,3 in), size of sheet.
With discarded pencil sketch of a squatting female nude on verso, around 1910.

This work is documented in the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive Wichtrach/Bern.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Southern Germany.

Female nudes occupy a large part of Kirchner's oeuvre of drawings. One could almost say that they make for the core of it. In them Kirchner focused less on rendering anatomic details, as that would have not been beneficial for the spontaneity. To him capturing the overall impression matters most, as he includes blank unpainted spaces into his drawings. Accordingly, the situation our nude is in is just imagined. The stronger the concentration is on the nude from the back. The swift and poised line management without clear contours hints at how quickly the drawing must have been executed. [KD].