Kirchner – Seated at the Table, Profile to the Left

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880 Aschaffenburg – 1938 Frauenkirch)

SEATED AT THE TABLE, PROFILE TO THE LEFT (TWO WOMEN AT THE TABLE)

Executed around 1908

Ink on paper, 21 x 17.5 cm

Provenance:

- Galerie Theo Hill, Cologne;

- Galerie Aenne Abels, Cologne;

- Gunda Horbach, Düsseldorf (early 1960s)

This work is documented in the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive Wichtrach/Bern. Archive excerpt from 25.10.2024

At first glance, it is surprising that an artist whose work owes its impact so significantly to color devoted himself with such passion to black-and-white drawing, but Kirchner needed it to clarify his understanding of composition and to get to the essence of representation. During his tours through streets, cafés, bars, and variety shows, he noted his visual impressions in the form of spontaneous, quick sketches. A painting did not always result, but many master drawings could stand alone as individual works.

In 1905, he founded the artist group "Die Brücke" in Dresden with his artist friends Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. By 1908, his career was slowly gaining momentum. He developed his own distinctive drawing language: "Seated at the Table, Profile to the Left" is captured in close view, with the motif limited to a few elements that fill the sheet to the edges. The drawing is designed without space and without the plasticity of internal forms and is largely free of details. Separated by strong contours, positive and negative forms stand in balanced tension against each other. Despite the small format, it appears large in its abbreviation and restriction to the essentials. All of this corresponds to Kirchner's drawing style of the years 1908 – 1910. The drawings from the Dresden years lack the sharp, hard, and fragmented stroke of the Berlin urban scenes. The forms are rounder, softer, and still show the beauty of the Art Nouveau style. In addition, he was inspired by the works of Edward Munch, Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh, the Neo-Impressionists, and Fauves, which Kirchner saw in exhibitions in Munich, Berlin, and Dresden starting in 1904.

The works from the Dresden Bridge period reflect the gradual emergence of Expressionism. "Seated at the Table, Profile to the Left," which reflects an important developmental step of the artist with immediate and expressive expression, is a masterpiece of modernity and unites on 21 x 17.5 cm everything that characterizes a top work of Kirchner.