Seated Woman in front of a Stove (Erna), 1913

In December 1911, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) moved from Dresden to Berlin, where he became a passionate pictorial chronicler of urban life. At a dance hall he met Erna and Gerda Schilling, who soon became his preferred models. The Expressionist captured the two sisters on canvas and on paper with almost obsessive energy, be it on the beaches of the Baltic Sea or in the coziness of the studio. This work from 1913, too, focuses on Erna, by now Kirchner’s partner. The casual posture of the half-dressed woman and the wine glass on the table constitute narrational pictorial elements that are eclipsed by the powerful graphic gestures.

IR, 2021