Waldweg zum Haus. Um 1906.
Brush and India ink drawing.
Lower right signed. Verso pre-dated "um 1900", there with the estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and the hand-written registration number "P Dre/ Aa 1". Verso also dated and titled "Park am Priesznitzpark um 1906" by a hand other than that of the artist. 49.5 x 33.5 cm (19.4 x 13.1 in), the full sheet. [CH].


• Large-format drawing from the sought-after, early Dresden "Brücke" period.
• Due to the technical properties of the ink, the drawing has lost none of its strong, deep black intensity of color even after almost 120 years.
• In 1908, Kirchner created the lithograph "Allee am Abend", which has a very similar motif and also seems to draw on the composition of the drawing offered here.
• In the early painting "Frau im Birkenwald" (Gordon 22, Tyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid), Kirchner also takes up the forest motif.
• The artist gives the trees towering over the path an almost abstract, ornamental and rhythmic structure.

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

PROVENANCE: Artist's estate (with the estate stamp on the reverse, Lugt 1570 b).
Private collection Sweden.
Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp Lugt 6032) acquired from the above, Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, Munich, December 5, 1994, lot 20).

EXHIBITION: Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, Munich, 200th auction, Moderne Kunst, December 5, 1994, lot 20.
Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 133, SHG no. 104 (illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 289, SHG no. 652 (illu.).

In good condition. A slight, carefully smoothed diagonal crease in the left area of the image. A small brownish discoloration in the upper right margin. A professionally closed, small tear (10mm) in the lower margin and a minimal paper loss in center left margin. The overall impression is excellent due to the dense and intense black coloring.