Sale: 600 / Evening Sale, Dec. 05. 2025 in Munich 
Lot 125001285
Lot 125001285 
125001285
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Sertigweg, 1937.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 500,000 - 700,000
$ 585,000 - 819,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Sertigweg. 1937.
Oil on canvas.
Gordon 1015. With the scratched signature in the upper left, with the scratched monogram in the lower left. Signed and titled on the reverse. 120 x 100 cm (47.2 x 39.3 in). [JS].
• One of the last paintings by the exceptional “Brücke” expressionist.
• Created in the solitude of Kirchner's last retreat, the “Haus am Wildboden” in the Sertig Valley near Davos, where Kirchner took his own life in 1938.
• Kirchner captured the sublimity of the Swiss mountains on canvas one last time with vibrant colors and confident brushstrokes.
• “Sertigweg” as an expressive symbol of life: the path through light and shadow, the valley, the ascent, and the hopeful, metaphysical power emanating from the distant peaks.
• Exhibited at the Kunsthalle Basel in the year it was created.
• From the important Kirchner collection of Dr. Bauer, Davos.
We are grateful to Dr. Wolfgang Henze, Wichtrach/Bern, for his kind expert advice.
PROVENANCE: Estate of the artist.
Erna Kirchner (inherited from the above in 1938).
Dr. Frédéric Bauer, Davos (acquired from the above on March 2, 1939, - at least until 1952).
Curt Valentin Gallery, New York.
Estate of Curt Valentin, New York (1954-1955).
Margarete Schultz, Great Neck/New York (acquired from the aforementioned estate in July 1955, -1965).
Caroline and Stephen Adler, Holliswood/New York (received as a gift from the aforementioned in June 1965, -1972).
Siegfried Adler, Montagnola (acquired from the above in 1972).
Private collection, Roman Norbert Ketterer, Campione d'Italia/Lugano (acquired from the above in 1974).
Private collection, Switzerland (since 2002).
Galerie Neher, Essen (2014).
Private collection, Berlin.
Private collection, southern Germany.
EXHIBITION: Kirchner, Kunsthalle Basel, October 30–November 27, 1937, no. 258.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Gemälde und Graphik der Sammlung F. Bauer, Davos, traveling exhibition Kunsthalle Nürnberg - Fränkische Galerie; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund; Haus am Waldsee, Berlin; et al., 1952/53, no. 27 with ill. p. 54.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: a retrospective exhibition, traveling exhibition Seattle Art Museum; Pasadena Art Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, November 23–April 27, 1969, no. 68, illustrated on pp. 32f.
18. Kunstausstellung Trubschachen – Schweizer Künstlerinnen und Künstler, Trubschachen 2009, cat. 8.
Expressionisten der “Brücke” und die Natur, Galerie Henze & Ketterer & Triebold in Riehen/Basel, May 4–September 7, 2013, no. (ID 76835).
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (PA), permanent loan September 1, 2016–October 27, 2020.
LITERATURE: Donald E. Gordon, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings, Munich/Cambridge (Mass.) 1968, CR no. 1015, p. 413 (illustrated in black and white).
- -
Donald E. Gordon and Margarethe Schultz, Correspondence February-May 1964 (typescript/manuscript, Donald Gordon Estate - University of Pittsburgh, series 1, box 5, folder 106).
Franz Roh, Begegnungen mit modernen Malern, in: Aus unserer Zeit. Special edition for Siemens employees, Munich 1957, illustrated in color on p. 119.
Franz Roh, Geschichte der deutschen Kunst von 1900 bis zur Gegenwart, Munich 1958, illustrated in color on plate IV.
Donald E. Gordon, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings, Munich 1968, p. 154, illustrated in color on p. 153.
Donald E. Gordon, Introduction and Chronology, in: E. L. Kirchner - A Retrospective Exhibition, Seattle, Pasadena, Boston, 1968-1969, pp. 15-33, p. 32, illustrated on p. 33.
Walter Lepori, Zauberberge - zu Ernst Ludwig Kirchners Davoser Bergbildern, licentiate thesis, Zurich, 1988, p. 70, illustrated on p. 93.
Lucius Grisebach, Von Davos nach Davos. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and the Grisebach and Spengler Families in Jena and Davos, in: Davoser Revue, no. 3, 1992, pp. 30-47, illustrated on p. 45.
Lothar Grisebach (ed.), E. L. Kirchner's Davos Diary, Stuttgart 1997, p. 86.
Roman Norbert Ketterer, Legenden am Auktionspult. Die Wiederentdeckung des deutschen Expressionismus, Munich 1999, p. 278, illustrated in color on p. 279.
Kirchner Museum Davos (ed.), Frédéric Bauer (= Magazine of the Kirchner Museum Davos 5.2004), no. 202, p. 168.
Wolfgang Henze, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's späte Kunst-Theorie, in: Kunst - Geschichte - Wahrnehmung - Strukturen und Mechanismen von Wahrnehmungsstrategien, Munich/Berlin, 2008, pp. 144-162, p. 149.
Hans Delfs, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Der gesamte Briefwechsel, vol. 4: Briefe von 1932 bis 1942, Stockdorf [privately printed] 2010, nos. 2964, 3440, 3443, 3586, pp. 2685, 3080, 3084, 3177.
Ruth Michel and Konrad Richter, Wandern wie gemalt. Graubünden. Auf den Spuren bekannter Gemälde, Zurich 2015, illustrated in color on page 217.
"The colors of imagination are available, and yet I must work close to nature."
E. L. Kirchner, quoted from: Gaia Regazzoni Jäggli, Und die Erhabenheit der Berge, Lugano 2021, p. 56.
Oil on canvas.
Gordon 1015. With the scratched signature in the upper left, with the scratched monogram in the lower left. Signed and titled on the reverse. 120 x 100 cm (47.2 x 39.3 in). [JS].
• One of the last paintings by the exceptional “Brücke” expressionist.
• Created in the solitude of Kirchner's last retreat, the “Haus am Wildboden” in the Sertig Valley near Davos, where Kirchner took his own life in 1938.
• Kirchner captured the sublimity of the Swiss mountains on canvas one last time with vibrant colors and confident brushstrokes.
• “Sertigweg” as an expressive symbol of life: the path through light and shadow, the valley, the ascent, and the hopeful, metaphysical power emanating from the distant peaks.
• Exhibited at the Kunsthalle Basel in the year it was created.
• From the important Kirchner collection of Dr. Bauer, Davos.
We are grateful to Dr. Wolfgang Henze, Wichtrach/Bern, for his kind expert advice.
PROVENANCE: Estate of the artist.
Erna Kirchner (inherited from the above in 1938).
Dr. Frédéric Bauer, Davos (acquired from the above on March 2, 1939, - at least until 1952).
Curt Valentin Gallery, New York.
Estate of Curt Valentin, New York (1954-1955).
Margarete Schultz, Great Neck/New York (acquired from the aforementioned estate in July 1955, -1965).
Caroline and Stephen Adler, Holliswood/New York (received as a gift from the aforementioned in June 1965, -1972).
Siegfried Adler, Montagnola (acquired from the above in 1972).
Private collection, Roman Norbert Ketterer, Campione d'Italia/Lugano (acquired from the above in 1974).
Private collection, Switzerland (since 2002).
Galerie Neher, Essen (2014).
Private collection, Berlin.
Private collection, southern Germany.
EXHIBITION: Kirchner, Kunsthalle Basel, October 30–November 27, 1937, no. 258.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Gemälde und Graphik der Sammlung F. Bauer, Davos, traveling exhibition Kunsthalle Nürnberg - Fränkische Galerie; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund; Haus am Waldsee, Berlin; et al., 1952/53, no. 27 with ill. p. 54.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: a retrospective exhibition, traveling exhibition Seattle Art Museum; Pasadena Art Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, November 23–April 27, 1969, no. 68, illustrated on pp. 32f.
18. Kunstausstellung Trubschachen – Schweizer Künstlerinnen und Künstler, Trubschachen 2009, cat. 8.
Expressionisten der “Brücke” und die Natur, Galerie Henze & Ketterer & Triebold in Riehen/Basel, May 4–September 7, 2013, no. (ID 76835).
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (PA), permanent loan September 1, 2016–October 27, 2020.
LITERATURE: Donald E. Gordon, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings, Munich/Cambridge (Mass.) 1968, CR no. 1015, p. 413 (illustrated in black and white).
- -
Donald E. Gordon and Margarethe Schultz, Correspondence February-May 1964 (typescript/manuscript, Donald Gordon Estate - University of Pittsburgh, series 1, box 5, folder 106).
Franz Roh, Begegnungen mit modernen Malern, in: Aus unserer Zeit. Special edition for Siemens employees, Munich 1957, illustrated in color on p. 119.
Franz Roh, Geschichte der deutschen Kunst von 1900 bis zur Gegenwart, Munich 1958, illustrated in color on plate IV.
Donald E. Gordon, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings, Munich 1968, p. 154, illustrated in color on p. 153.
Donald E. Gordon, Introduction and Chronology, in: E. L. Kirchner - A Retrospective Exhibition, Seattle, Pasadena, Boston, 1968-1969, pp. 15-33, p. 32, illustrated on p. 33.
Walter Lepori, Zauberberge - zu Ernst Ludwig Kirchners Davoser Bergbildern, licentiate thesis, Zurich, 1988, p. 70, illustrated on p. 93.
Lucius Grisebach, Von Davos nach Davos. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and the Grisebach and Spengler Families in Jena and Davos, in: Davoser Revue, no. 3, 1992, pp. 30-47, illustrated on p. 45.
Lothar Grisebach (ed.), E. L. Kirchner's Davos Diary, Stuttgart 1997, p. 86.
Roman Norbert Ketterer, Legenden am Auktionspult. Die Wiederentdeckung des deutschen Expressionismus, Munich 1999, p. 278, illustrated in color on p. 279.
Kirchner Museum Davos (ed.), Frédéric Bauer (= Magazine of the Kirchner Museum Davos 5.2004), no. 202, p. 168.
Wolfgang Henze, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's späte Kunst-Theorie, in: Kunst - Geschichte - Wahrnehmung - Strukturen und Mechanismen von Wahrnehmungsstrategien, Munich/Berlin, 2008, pp. 144-162, p. 149.
Hans Delfs, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Der gesamte Briefwechsel, vol. 4: Briefe von 1932 bis 1942, Stockdorf [privately printed] 2010, nos. 2964, 3440, 3443, 3586, pp. 2685, 3080, 3084, 3177.
Ruth Michel and Konrad Richter, Wandern wie gemalt. Graubünden. Auf den Spuren bekannter Gemälde, Zurich 2015, illustrated in color on page 217.
"The colors of imagination are available, and yet I must work close to nature."
E. L. Kirchner, quoted from: Gaia Regazzoni Jäggli, Und die Erhabenheit der Berge, Lugano 2021, p. 56.
125001285
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Sertigweg, 1937.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 500,000 - 700,000
$ 585,000 - 819,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
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