Half-length figure of a woman, 1929

Blatt: 430 x 390 mm

Physical Description: Pencil on wove cardboard

Inventory Number: 17898

Object Number: 17898 Z

Acquisition: Acquired in 2019 as a bequest from Ulrike Crespo from the Karl Ströher Collection

Status: Can be presented in the study room of the Graphische Sammlung (special opening hours)

Texts

About the Work

In his Brücke period, Kirchner strove to depict his experiences in a manner as ‘immediate and undistorted’ as possible. In the late 1920s, he found his way to a more abstract style distinguished by clear lines and two-dimensional zones. He developed the 1929 portrayal of a woman from a few multiply intersecting lines, which he drew very deliberately without lifting the pencil from the cardboard. The figure’s profile and three-quarter view overlap, thus reproducing what is in reality a flowing movement—the turn of the head—on paper.

About the Acquisition

The Städel Museum has the photographer, psychotherapist, philanthropist, and long-time Frankfurt resident Ulrike Crespo (1950–2019) to thank for more than ninety works ranging from classical modernism to American pop art. The paintings, drawings, and prints by Wassily Kandinsky, Otto Dix, Oskar Schlemmer, Max Ernst, Jean Dubuffet, Cy Twombly, and others originally belonged to the holdings of her grandfather, the Darmstadt-based industrialist Karl Ströher (1890–1977), who amassed an extensive art collection after World War II.

Work Data

Basic Information

Title: Half-length figure of a woman

Draughtsman

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Verso: Sketch of a lying cat

Period Produced

20th century

Object Type

drawing

Physical Description: Pencil on wove cardboard

Material

Technique

pencil drawing

Geographic Reference

German

Label at the Time of Manufacture: Signiert und datiert unten rechts (mit Bleistift): E L Kirchner 29

Captions Added Later: Verso nummeriert unten links (mit Bleistift): 275. [im Kreis]

Watermark: Nicht vorhanden

Property and Acquisition

Work Content

Motifs and References

Iconclass

Research and Discussion

Provenance

Object History: ...

Frédéric Bauer (1883-1957), Davos

Kunstkabinett R. N. Ketterer, Stuttgart

verkauft an Karl Ströher (1890-1977), Darmstadt, 1955

Nachlass Karl Ströher, 1977

an seine Enkelin Ulrike Crespo (1950-2019), Frankfurt am Main

Vermächtnis an das Städelsche Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main, 2019.

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: