Watercolor and black chalk
With estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and with the registration number "A Da/Ba 25" as well as with the number "K 3918". On light smooth cardboard. 35,5 x 46,5 cm (13,9 x 18,3 in), the full sheet
The portrayed persons are presumably Hans Rohner and Lotte Kraft, a couple that was friends with the artist. In 1928 and the following years they posed for Kirchner several times. See also the woodcut "Zwei Köpfe" from the same year (Dube 594). [NB].

This work is registered in the Ernst Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern.

PROVENANCE: Private collection southern Germany.

Kirchner studied architecture in Dresden where he met and worked with Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. After finishing his studies, however, he opposed his father's wishes and decided to become a painter. The intense artistic and intellectual relationship between the four artists soon led to the formation of the artist group 'Die Brücke'. In 1911 Kirchner moved to Berlin. Here Kirchner discovered ever new motifs, which he painted in a simplified manner, with sharply contoured forms, expressive features and clashing colors. The big city paintings became incunables of Expressionism and made Kirchner one of the most important German artists of the 20th century. The beginning of World War I and the following years were a turning point in Kiurchner‘s life. The war experiences and military service caused an existential angst and led to illness and long stays in sanatoriums. In 1917 Kirchner settled in Frauenkirch near Davos. The big city scenes were now replaced by mountain landscapes and scenes of rural life. Besides that Kirchner also produced an extensive graphic œuvre, comprising woodcuts, lithographs and ink drawings.

After a large exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel, Kirchner moved into the ‘Wildbodenhaus‘ at the entrance of the Sertig Valley in 1923. He rented the house for an annual rent of 240 Swiss Francs and remodeled it to suit his needs. Next to his studio and bedroom, he set up a room with a printing press and a small guest room. Over the following years Kirchner often welcomed guests, as he had retreated to the loneliness of the Swiss mountains without neglecting his contacts in the art metropolises in Germany and Switzerland. The painter Hans Rohner and his wife, the violin player Lotte Kraft, visited Kirchner for the first time in spring 1928. The artist from Munich had seen Kirchner’s works in gallery of Günther Franke and presumably became acquainted with Kircjner through Franke. They were working and drawing together, often in nature, with Rohner‘s wife often posing as model. In the summer of 1928, in which our double portrait was also executed in an expressive coloring and with an almost manic line management, Kirchner put down in his diary: "Marie and a visitor of Ms Rohner. Both are very open and considered nude posing to be something very natural." (Translation of quote from E.W. Kornfeld, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Nachzeichnung seines Lebens, Bern 1979, p. 270).

Afflicted by delusions and an increasing morphine addiction, the artist committed suicide in 1938.