“Graphic work is always the best key to the understanding of an artist.”
—Ernst Ludwig KirchnerAs a founding member of the artist group Die Brücke (1905-1913), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner embraced woodcuts as an affirmation of his German heritage and as a rejection of the academic style of the time. In recovering the lost technique, woodcuts became the typical print medium in Die Brücke’s search for a tighter, more concise embodiment of their pictorial ideas. Bursting with a juicy violet ink monotyped in combination with woodcut-printed black, the unique trial proof Melancholie. - Nackte Frau. - Selbstbildnis mit Erna typifies the deep emotional tension that the earlier Die Brücke style so sough with later impressionist vigor, the heightened color and simplified approach to form they utilized to achieve those means, and the ongoing experimentation that woodcuts afforded to their stylistic development. Here, the painterly experimentation of the presumably first trial proof offers insight into Kirchner’s working process at a moment in which the artist began to experiment with color for the image of himself and his longtime artistic and romantic partner, Erna.
[Left] The present trial proof.
[Right] Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Melancholie (Selbstbildnis mit Erna), 1922. Städel Museum, Frankfurt. Image: Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Acquired in 1948 as a gift from the heirs of Carl Hagemann’s estate, 65634The woodcut technique not only spoke to Kirchner’s expressive sensibilities, but amid ongoing battles with his mental and physical health, printmaking offered the artist a certain joy. “There is no greater pleasure for an artist than to watch the ink roller as it goes over the newly-prepared block for the first time, or to observe the stone as the design develops out, or to see the final version of a print as it comes from the press, he remarked. “How absorbing it is to examine such prints one by one so that the hours pass by unnoticed!”
“When two people go together for life, they make an agreement to achieve a goal. The goal with us is and was to reach the greatest and highest level in painting and sculpture [...]. I have the feeling of infinite gratitude towards this woman […]”
—Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, on his relationship with Erna SchillingIn 1912 at a Berlin nightclub, Kirchner met a woman who would become his partner for life: Erna Schilling. During the early days of their relationship, Erna quickly became Kirchner’s preferred model and displayed her own artistic talents by creating decorations for and hosting dance performances in the artist’s studio. After Kirchner’s voluntary enlistment in the German army in 1915 resulted in a nervous breakdown, it was Erna who put her own passions to the side in order to manage Kirchner’s affairs in Berlin while he underwent treatment. One of his treatment locales, Davos, a town in the Swiss Alps, soon became a place of great importance and healing for the depressed Kirchner, writing to one of his doctors in a remarkably cheerful tone in July 1917, "I wish to remain in the world and for the world. The high mountains here will help me."
[Left] Erna Schilling and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, 1912/14. Image: © Kirchner Museum Davos.
[Right] Erna Schilling, Walter Kircher, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Davos, 1923. Image: Ausstellung Kirchner Kunsthaus Zurich, 2017.After a very productive summer in the town, Kirchner moved to Davos permanently in 1918, often hosting friends and colleagues in the mountains. One such artist Kirchner hosted was Hermann Scherer, a past owner of this impression of Melancholie. - Nackte Frau. - Selbstbildnis mit Erna. An Expressionist in his own right, Scherer was deeply inspired by Kirchner’s 1923 exhibition in Basel and over the next few years spent much time working with Kirchner in Davos, learning his techniques and methods in self-portraiture and woodcut.
While Kirchner artistically thrived in his new Alpine life, Erna did not feel at home in the solitude of the Swiss mountains once she joined Kirchner in 1921 and was plagued by gloom and homesickness for Berlin, developing a recurring spring depression. In the expressive woodcut Melancholie. - Nackte Frau. - Selbstbildnis mit Erna, printed a year after Erna’s relocation, the artist presents his partner naked and with a sullen, melancholy expression. With his own hands placed on her shoulder and upper arm, Kirchner, afflicted by his own continued depression despite his love for Davos, protects and comforts the vulnerable, dispirited Erna. Here, Kirchner displays a sign of his lifelong devotion for his city girl, who he acknowledged “sacrifices her life for me and my work."
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Mountains with a Mountain Hut, 1921. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Image: © National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Ruth and Jacob Kainen Collection, Gift in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.156.5 Melancholie. - Nackte Frau. - Selbstbildnis mit Erna is closely connected mentally and with regard to subject matter to his 1923 painting Schwarzer Frühling (Black Spring) and the related drypoint. Kirchner worked intensively on the theme of "Black Spring” and created several works in various techniques under this title. The title "Black Spring" refers to two strokes of fate the artist suffered in the spring of 1923. After the death of his physician Dr Lucius Spengler, Kirchner broke off contact with the Spengler family, losing an important intellectual contact as well as a financial source. At the same time, he was given notice to leave the house "In den Lärchen" in autumn 1923. This resulted in the double portrait, in which he bends over Erna sitting on the grass in a comforting pose.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Schwarzer Frühling (Black Spring), 1923. Sammlung Eberhard W. Kornfeld. Image: akg-images Despite Erna’s seasonal depression in the mountains, the couple settled in Davos for the remainder of their lives, and after a relationship of over 20 years, they finally decided to wed in June 1938. However, their engagement was short-lived, due in part to Kirchner’s own paranoias about living in Switzerland. After Austria was annexed by Germany, Kirchner spent the first half of 1938 increasingly disturbed by the notion that Germany might next invade Switzerland. Kircher cancelled their planned wedding shortly after they agreed to wed, and on June 15, 1938, the artist took his own life by gunshot in front of his home, the house in which Erna continued to live until her own death in 1945.
Provenance
Hermann Scherer (1893-1927), Basel, Switzerland
Christie's, London, Important Modern and Contemporary Prints, Old Master Prints, December 8, 1983, lot 212
David R. Markin, Kalamazoo, Michigan/Palm Beach, Florida
Thence by descent to the present ownerLiterature
Gustav Schiefler H465
Annemarie and Wolf-Dieter Dube H480
Günther Gercken 11288/I.a (Bd. V) (this impression cited)
Property from an Important Midwestern Family Collection
2
Melancholie. - Nackte Frau. - Selbstbildnis mit Erna (Melancholy. - Naked Woman. - Self-Portrait with Erna) (S. H465, D. H480, G. 1288/I.a (Bd. V))
1922
Woodcut with monotype coloring in black, mauve and red, on buff wove paper, with full margins.
I. 27 1/8 x 15 3/4 in. (68.9 x 40 cm)
S. 30 7/8 x 20 1/8 in. (78.4 x 51.1 cm)
Gercken's first state I.a (of II.2), a unique trial proof probably printed by the artist, framed.
We wish to thank Dr. Günther Gercken for his help cataloguing this work.
Estimate
$70,000 - 100,000
Editions & Works on Paper
New York Auction 22 - 24 October 2024
149
This lot is no longer available.
344
This lot is no longer available.
376
This lot is no longer available.
