Badende im Waldbach. 1923.
Drypoint.
Dube 471. Signed and titled "Badende im Bergbach" as well as inscribed "Eigendruck". Only known copy of ths printing state that Dube does not document between Dube I and II, lacking the three diagonal lines below left hand of the front bather. On light, satinated board. 25,1 x 31,1 cm (9,8 x 12,2 in). Sheet: 34,9 x 39,6 cm (13,7 x 15,6 in).
One copy of the last state (Dube 471 II) is in possession of the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich.

We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Günther Gercken, Lütjensee, for his kind expert advice. This sheet will be included into his forthcoming catalog raisonné of graphic works with the title "Badende im Bergbach" as II. state (of III).

PROVENANCE: Private collection Berlin.

EXHIBITION: Marlborough Fine Art, London (with label on rear of frame).

Contemporaries often criticized the proportions in Kirchner's nudes. However, to Kirchner, as well as to the other pioneers of Expressionism, proportions never mattered much. It was more about capturing the moment, the constellation of the figures and the atmosphere. Al this finds its expression, especially in Kirchner's art, in a unique dynamic stroke of the line. Kirchner's spontaneous, almost aggressive process of creation does not allow later corrections, but it is just this decisiveness that makes his graphic works and drawings so very special. [EH/JS].