Sale: 540 / Evening Sale, June 09. 2023 in Munich Lot 49

 

49
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Akt im Tub, 1914.
Pastel
Estimate:
€ 40,000 / $ 43,200
Sold:
€ 50,800 / $ 54,864

(incl. surcharge)
Akt im Tub. 1914.
Pastel.
With the estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and the hand-written registration number "FS Be / Bg 20". On off-white laid paper (with watermark "SLG"). 67.8 x 51 cm (26.6 x 20 in), almost the full sheet.
With the depiction of a female nude in a tub "Akt im Tub beim Abtrocknen" on the reverse, black chalk drawing, the full sheet. [CH].
• Executed on both sides: with a female nude on the reverse.
• From the sought-after creative period in Berlin, during which Kirchner also made his famous street scenes.
• Studio scene in intensive colors.
• Color drawings, especially pastels, in this size and colorfulness are extremely rare.
• The work is closely connected with the center panel of the monumental triptych "Badende Frauen" (1915/1925, Kirchner Museum, Davos, private collection and National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)
.

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

PROVENANCE: From the artist's estate (Davos 1938, Kunstmuseum Basel 1946, with the hand-numbered estate stamp on the reverse).
Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett Roman Norbert Ketterer (1954).
Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin (1966).
Galerie Detlev Rosenbach, Hanover-Garbsen (1969).
Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp, Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: E. L. Kirchner zum fünfundzwanzigsten Todestag, Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin, June 18 - October 17, 1963, cat. no. 71 (with illu.).
Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 1995-2001).
Frauen in Kunst und Leben der "Brücke", Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, September 10 - November 5, 2000, cat. no. 120 (with illu.).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2001-2017).
Expressiv! Die Künstler der Brücke. Die Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Albertina Vienna, June 1 - August 26, 2007, cat. no. 167, p. 258 (with illu., p. 259).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Galerie Detlev Rosenbach, Hanover-Garbsen, Kunst des XX. Jahrhunderts, catalog 2, cat. no. 222 (with illu.).
Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 260, SHG no. 375 (with illu., p. 261).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 337, SHG no. 757 (with illu.)


After founding the artist group "Brücke" with Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Erich Heckel and Fritz Bleyl and following a couple of several successful years in Dresden, the artists, with the exception of Fritz Bleyl, gradually moved to the big city of Berlin, which at the time was one of the most exciting cultural centers in Germany. E. L. Kirchner settled in the vibrant metropolis in 1911. From then on he processed the impressions of his new home in his residential studio on Durchlacher Strasse in Berlin-Wilmersdorf and later on Körnerstrasse in Berlin-Steglitz. In the course of these years, he made, among others, the so-called "street scenes", which count among his most famous and most important works today. In addition, numerous depictions of the studio, still lifes, portraits and nudes also came into existence. As it also used to be the case in Dresden, the mostly female amateur models, who Kirchner skillfully and self-confidently immortalized with dynamic strokes in drawings and paintings, also frequented the Berlin studio. In the present large-format drawing, Kirchner transferred the traditional motif of the bather into his very characteristic expressionist pictorial language. In strong, powerful primary colors he emphasizes the female body, the water, lips, hair and a washcloth and also sketches the space surrounding the figure with two consciously placed, strong green color bars to determine the figure’s location. The intensive examination of the motif is reflected in the work offered here not only in the brightly colored pastel drawing on the front, but also in a sketch of a female nude on the reverse: This is proof of the close connection between this work and Kirchner’s slightly later monumental "Badende Frauen” (Women Bathing, 1915/1925, Gordon 440 a-c), the three parts of which are now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in the Kirchner Museum in Davos and in an unknown private collection. [CH]



49
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Akt im Tub, 1914.
Pastel
Estimate:
€ 40,000 / $ 43,200
Sold:
€ 50,800 / $ 54,864

(incl. surcharge)