Sale: 528 / Modern Art, June 11. 2022 in Munich Lot 422

 

422
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Bauern auf der Alp, 1922.
Color Chalk drawing
Estimate:
€ 14,000 / $ 14,980
Sold:
€ 83,750 / $ 89,612

(incl. surcharge)
Bauern auf der Alp. 1922.
Color Chalk drawing.
Bottom left signed and dated. Verso inscribed: "Bauern" and dated "1922". There also with "145" in red chalk in right margin.Verso with the estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and the hand-written registration number "FS Da/Bi 2" . On firm wove paper. 39.2 x 50 cm (15.4 x 19.6 in), the full sheet. [EH].
Verso: Bauernkopf. Color chalk drawing. Lower right dated and partly illegibly titled.
• After Kirchner moved to the Davos mountains, the life of the peasants became an important source of inspiration for the artist's work.
• Composition with strong strokes and an empasis on color
.

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

PROVENANCE: From the artist's estate.
Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, 19th auction, cat. 1186
Private collection Southern Germany.
Collection Blohm, Hamburg.

EXHIBITION: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Graphik, Municn, Zürich, Cologne, Stuttgart, 1954, cat. 109.

In 1917 Kirchner settled in Frauenkirch near Davos. In the period that followed, he put focus on mountain landscapes and depictions of rural life. In Switzerland, Kirchner found joy in depicting his rural environment, which would become an important pictorial object in his works of the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1920s he also found his way back to the technique of drawing with colored chalks, which he had already used in the early drawings from his time in Dresden. With a sure, powerful stroke he describes the village life of the peasants. Kirchner always saw his drawings as independent works. In terms of their effect, they are on a par with works in other media. This work is a characteristic drawing through an dthrough, written very spontaneously, like almost all works of this period; fresh in effect and not subject to compositional calculations, just the way Kirchner had always wanted it to be. He sets the accents consciously and pointedly by using reduced colors.

The peasant's head, drawn with colored chalks on the reverse, shows the great skill of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's draftsmanship in his alla prima drawing. Kirchner dispenses with the preliminary drawing and develops the figure out of the color alone.



422
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Bauern auf der Alp, 1922.
Color Chalk drawing
Estimate:
€ 14,000 / $ 14,980
Sold:
€ 83,750 / $ 89,612

(incl. surcharge)