Berlin Street Scene, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Berlin Street Scene
DE
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Berlin Street Scene, ca. 1914


Blatt
677 x 503 mm
Physical Description
Pastel chalks and charcoal on laid paper
Inventory Number
16069
Object Number
16069 Z
Status
Can be presented in the study room of the Graphische Sammlung (special opening hours)

Texts

About the Work

When the Brücke member Ernst Ludwig Kirchner moved from Dresden to Berlin in 1911, life in the modern metropolis became one of the central topics in his works. Today they rank among the highlights of his artistic oeuvre. This pastel of a Berlin street scene belongs in the conceptual context of many of the paintings, drawings and prints in which Kirchner took as his subject the bustle on the streets and squares of the capital and in each case made use of the special features of the technique in question.

The foreground of the scene is dominated by an arrangement of three elongated figures, who take up the entire height of the picture surface. With dynamic, rapid strokes, the artist has characterised a man dressed in a coat and hat and two fashionably dressed women. The women's outfits, the feather hats, the costume with the overlarge collar, and the high-heeled shoes are immediately eye-catching. The way they are posing and their mask-like faces - highlighted in a garish, pale blue and alertly registering their surroundings - make it clear that they are prostitutes. The scene derives its aggressive character from the jagged forms ending in acute angles and the dominant colours: black, the turquoise of the costume, the purple of the punter's hat and trousers, but above all from the sulphur-yellow light that surrounds them. A suggestive aspect is provided behind the right-hand figure by the phalanx of extended male legs running parallel to each other as they descend into the depths of an otherwise undefined space - a feature that recurs in the painting 'Friedrichstraße' (1914, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart). The energetically charged tension is, however, immediately converted into the powerful execution and intensity of the pastel colours in the drawing. The artist's gaze at the challenging eroticism of big-city civilisation is considerably different from the natural sensuousness of the works he created in Dresden and on Fehmarn. A drawing such as his 'Berlin Street Scene' colours our impression of the mood in the German metropolis on the eve of the First World War.

The Brücke artists' association disbanded in 1913 and Kirchner's involvement with the magazine 'Der Sturm' would take him to the centre of the Expressionist movement. This pastel belonged at one time to the collector Carl Hagemann, who maintained a friendly relationship with the artist until he died. It is thanks to the "Bequest of Dr. Carl Hagemann" that the Collection of Prints and Drawings has in its possession one of the most important collections of Expressionist art.

About the Acquisition

From 1900 onwards, the Frankfurt chemist and industrialist Carl Hagemann (1867‒1940) assembled one of the most important private collections of modern art. It included numerous paintings, drawings, watercolours and prints, especially by members of the artist group “Die Brücke”. After Carl Hagemann died in an accident during the Second World War, the then Städel director Ernst Holzinger arranged for Hagemann’s heirs to evacuate his collection with the museum’s collection. In gratitude, the family donated almost all of the works on paper to the Städel Museum in 1948. Further donations and permanent loans as well as purchases of paintings and watercolours from the Hagemann estate helped to compensate for the losses the museum had suffered in 1937 as part of the Nazi’s “Degenerate Art” campaign. Today, the Hagemann Collection forms the core of the Städel museum’s Expressionist collection.

Work Data

Basic Information

Title
Berlin Street Scene
Draughtsman
Production Place
Period Produced
Object Type
Physical Description
Pastel chalks and charcoal on laid paper
Material
Technique
Geographic Reference
Production Reason
Label at the Time of Manufacture
Nicht bezeichnet
Captions Added Later
Verso Stempel des Städelschen Kunstinstituts, Frankfurt am Main (Lugt 2356)
Watermark
  • SLG
Work Catalogues
  • Lenz 1974, 27

Property and Acquisition

Institution
Departement
Collection
Creditline
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Picture Copyright
Public Domain

Work Content

Motifs and References

Genre
Main Motif

Iconclass

Primary
  • 61E(BERLIN) names of cities and villages (BERLIN)
  • 33C56 soliciting in the street ~ prostitution
  • 33C52 whore, prostitute
  • 31AA231(+72) standing figure - AA - female human figure (+ two persons)
  • 33C86 woman-chaser
  • 31A231 standing figure
Secondary

Research and Discussion

Provenance

Object History
...
Carl Hagemann (1867-1940), Frankfurt
Nachlass Carl Hagemann, 1940
Schenkung der Erben an das Städelsche Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main, 1948.

Information

Since 2001, the Städel Museum has systematically been researching the provenance of all objects that were acquired during the National Socialist period, or that changed owners or could have changed owners during those years. The basis for this research is the “Washington Declaration”, also known as the “Washington Conference Principles”, formulated at the 1998 “Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets” and the subsequent “Joint Declaration”.

The provenance information is based on the sources researched at the time they were published digitally. However, this information can change at any time when new sources are discovered. Provenance research is therefore a continuous process and one that is updated at regular intervals.

Ideally, the provenance information documents an object’s origins from the time it was created until the date when it found its way into the collection. It contains the following details, provided they are known:

  • the type of acquisition and/or the way the object changed hands
  • the owner's name and place of residence
  • the date on which it changed hands

The successive ownership records are separated from each other by a semicolon.

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Last update

08.12.2023