Drei sitzende nackte Mädchen und Pfeife rauchender Maler am Strand. 1913.
Pencil drawing.
With the estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and the hand-written registration number "B Be / Bf 105" on the reverse. 45.2 x 58.6 cm (17.7 x 23 in), size of sheet. [CH].


• From the sought-after Berlin years.
• E. L. Kirchner spent the summer of 1913 with his partner Erna Schilling on Fehmarn, his beloved retreat away from the hectic life in Berlin.
• Only a few months after the artist group disbanded, Kirchner's former "Brücke" colleague Otto Mueller and his wife Maschka came to visit Fehmarn in the summer of 1913.
• Kirchner composed a figure scene presumably with a smoking Otto Mueller, Maschka Mueller and Kirchner's partner Erna Schilling and her sister Gerda.
• The motif of the elegantly dressed man next to three female nudes is also taken up by the artist as a studio scene in his painting "Urteil des Paris" (1913, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen).
• It is possible that both works show different interpretations of the well-known mythical epic in which Zeus instructs the young Paris to choose the most beautiful of the three goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite.

PROVENANCE: Artist's estate (with the estate stamp on the reverse, Lugt 1570b).
Roman Norbert Ketterer, Campione d'Italia (1964).
Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 1995-2001).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2001-2017).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Roman Norbert Ketterer, Campione d'Italia, E. L. Kirchner. Brücke, Campione 1964, p. 84 cat. no. 72 (illu., p. 85).
Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 257, SHG no. 367 (illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, pp. 330f., SHG no. 746 (illu.).

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