Nude Models at the Studio, 1912

Leopold Museum,
Vienna

Leopold Museum,
Vienna

Nude Models at the Studio
1912

Verso: Circus Scene

recto: Oil on canvas, verso: Oil on canvas

80.7×70.7 cm

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
(Aschaffenburg 1880‒1938 Davos Frauenkirch )

Currently on display at EG

What looks like sketched out spontaneously appears in fact to have been carefully planned and composed: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) revealingly stages the bodies of skimpily dressed or nude female models, edgy, fragmentally faceted, with tapering angular shapes, at his Berlin place of work in his 1912 painting Nude Models at the Studio. Leaning, sitting, and standing, four female figures of staggered heights direct the eye into the depths of the interior with stovepipe, folding screen, mirror, and exotic sitting furniture. In clearly delineated color fields—red, blue, white, ocher, green—developed into carriers of meaning with flat, strong parallel brushstrokes, the nervously shimmering depiction of the scene conveys an impression of hectic big city life in the Berlin of the early 1920s. The effect is heightened by the markedly frayed and jagged, hatching-like contours. These are typical of the early phase of this co-founder of the Dresden artist group Die Brücke and exponent of German Expressionism.

MH, 2021

Audio

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Object data

Artist/author

Ernst Ludwig KirchnerGND

Title

Nude Models at the Studio

Alternative title

Verso: Circus Scene

Date

1912

Art movement

Expressionism

Category

Painting

Material/technique

recto: Oil on canvas, verso: Oil on canvas

Dimensions

80.7×70.7 cm

Credit line

Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 197

Inventory access

Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994

Selection of Reference works

Deutscher Expressionismus. Die Sammlungen Braglia und Johenning, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger/Ivan Ristić, Köln 2019 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 15.11.2019-20.04.2020).
Wally Neuzil. Ihr Leben mit Egon Schiele, hrsg. von Diethard Leopold/Stephan Pumberger u.a., Wien 2015 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 27.02.2015-01.06.2015).
Farbenrausch. Meisterwerke des deutschen Expressionismus, hrsg. von Tayfun Belgin/Otto Letze, Wien 2015 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 9.10.2015-11.01.2016).
Körper, Gesicht, Seele. Frauenbilder vom 16. bis ins 21. Jahrhundert, hrsg. von Elisabeth Leopold, Wien 2006 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 09.06.2006-02.10.2006).
Deutsche Expressionisten. Mit Meisterwerken aus der Sammlung Thyssen-Bornemisza, hrsg. von Rudolf Leopold/Michael Fuhr, Wien 2006 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 28.09.2006-10.01.2007).
Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Mit einem kritischen Katalog sämtlicher Gemälde, München 1968.

Catalogue raisonne

Gordon 1968: 286

Keywords

nudegroup portraitwoman/girlman/boyworkshop/studio (painter)underwear: bloomersbootsleaning sidewayspiping/wiringfurniture/household effectscircus show/artists

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Nachlass Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Davos (1938-1946)
Galerie Roman Ketterer, Campione, Schweiz (ab 1953);
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (nach 1968); (1)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (seit 1994)

Donald E. Gordon, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner : mit einem kritischen Katalog sämtlicher Gemälde, München 1968, S. 314, Nr. 286

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