Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker. He was one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century art. Kirchner volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a breakdown and was discharged. His work was branded as "degenerate" by the Nazis in 1937 and more than 600 of his works were sold or destroyed."Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: German, 1880–1938". German Expressionism. Museum of Modern Art. New York City. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
Early life and education Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born in Aschaffenburg, in Kingdom of Bavaria."Ernst Ludwig Kirchner", Brucke Museum. Retrieved 8 September 2007. His parents were of Prussian descent and his mother Maria Elise née Franke (1851–1928) was a descendant of the Huguenots, a fact to which Kirchner often referred.Kornfield, E. W.; Stauffer, Christine E. Stauffer (1992). "Biography Ernst Ludwig Kirchner" , Kirchner Museum Davos. Retrieved 21 March 2016. As Kirchner's father, chemical engineer, design engineer, and inventor in the field of papermaking Ernst Kirchner (1847–1921) searched for a job, the family moved frequently. Kirchner attended schools in Frankfurt and in Perlen near Lucerne, until his father earned the position of Professor of Paper Sciences at the College of Technology in Chemnitz in 1892, where Kirchner attended secondary school.
From 1890, Kirchner attended the Realgymnasium in Chemnitz and made his first attempts at woodcut printing under his father's guidance. He also received private instruction in watercolor painting.
During a school trip to Nuremberg in 1898, young Ernst Ludwig saw the printing blocks for early woodcuts and incunabula at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum and was inspired by the art of Albrecht Dürer to become a painter himself. He later wrote that this experience was decisive in shaping his goal of renewing German art.
Student in Munich, Dresden Although Kirchner's parents encouraged his artistic career they also wanted him to complete his formal education. In 1901, he began studying architecture at the Royal Saxon Polytechnicum in Dresden (now TU Dresden). The institution provided a wide range of studies in addition to architecture, such as freehand drawing, perspective drawing and the historical study of art."The Student Years of the Brücke and their Teachers", ingentaconnect.com (abstract of book by Peter Lasko), from Art History, Volume 20, Number 1, March 1997, pp. 61–99. Retrieved 7 September 2007. While in attendance, he became close friends with Fritz Bleyl, whom Kirchner met during the first term."Fritz Bleyl (1880–1966)", Brücke Museum. Retrieved 7 September 2007. They discussed art together and also studied nature, having a radical outlook in common."Kirchner – Expressionism and the city", Royal Academy, 2003. Retrieved 7 September 2007.
Kirchner continued studies at the Polytechnic School of Munich and the Debschitz-Schule, art school run by Wilhelm von Debschitz and Heinrich Obrist, in Munich from 1903 to 1904, returning to Dresden in 1905 to complete his degree with his final diploma examination and turned exclusively to painting.
Die Brücke, 1905-1913
In 1905, Kirchner, along with Fritz Bleyl and two other architecture students, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel, founded the artists group Die Brücke ("The Bridge"). From then on, he committed himself to art. The group aimed to eschew the prevalent traditional academic style and find a new mode of artistic expression, which would form a bridge (hence the name) between the past and the present. They responded both to past artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder, as well as contemporary international avant-garde movements. As part of the affirmation of their national heritage, they revived older media, particularly woodcut prints.
Their group had a major impact on the evolution of modern art in the 20th century and created the style of Expressionism."The Artists' Association 'Brücke'", Brücke Museum. Retrieved 7 September 2007. The group met initially in Kirchner's first studio, which had previously been a butcher's shop. Bleyl described it as "that of a real bohemian, full of paintings lying all over the place, drawings, books and artist's materials — much more like an artist's romantic lodgings than the home of a well-organised architecture student".
Kirchner's studio became a venue which overthrew social conventions to allow casual love-making and frequent nudity. Group life-drawing sessions took place using models from the social circle, rather than professionals, and choosing quarter-hour poses to encourage spontaneity. Bleyl described one such model, Isabella, a fifteen-year-old girl from the neighbourhood, as "a very lively, beautifully built, joyous individual, without any deformation caused by the silly fashion of the corset and completely suitable to our artistic demands, especially in the blossoming condition of her girlish buds."
A group manifesto written by Kirchner in 1906 stated that "Everyone who reproduces, directly and without illusion, whatever he senses the urge to create, belongs to us".Quoted in "The Artists' Association 'Brücke' – Chronology", Brücke Museum. Retrieved 29 September 2016. In September and October 1906, the first group exhibition was held, focused on the female nude, in the showroom of K.F.M. Seifert and Co. in Dresden.
In 1906, he met milliner Doris Große, who was his favoured model until 1911. Between 1907 and 1911, he stayed during the summer at the Moritzburg lakes and on the island of Fehmarn (which he revisited until 1914) with other Brücke members; his work featured the female nude in natural settings. In 1911, he moved to Berlin, where he founded a private art school, MIUM-Institut, in collaboration with Max Pechstein with the aim of promulgating "Moderner Unterricht im Malen" (modern teaching of painting). This was not a success and closed the following year, when he also began a relationship with dancer Erna Schilling that lasted the rest of his life.
In 1913, his writing of Chronik der Brücke (Brücke chronicle) led to the ending of the group. At this time, he established an individual identity with his first solo exhibition, which took place at the Essen Folkwang Museum. During the next two years, he painted a series of "Straßenszenen" (street scenes) showing the streets of Berlin, with the central characters of street walkers.
Military service and mental breakdown, 1914-1916
At the onset of the First World War in September 1914, Kirchner volunteered for military service at the age of 35. In July 1915 he was sent to Halle an der Saale to train as a driver in the reserve unit of the 75th Mansfeld Field Artillery Regiment. Kirchner's riding instructor, Professor Hans Fehr, arranged for Kirchner to be discharged after a mental breakdown. Kirchner then returned to Berlin and continued to work, producing many paintings including Self-Portrait as a Soldier (1915). In December 1915 he was admitted to Dr. Oskar Kohnstamm's sanatorium in Königstein (Taunus), where he was diagnosed with alcoholism and addiction to Veronal.
In a letter to Dr. Karl Hagemann, a friend and patron, Kirchner wrote: "After lengthy struggles I now find myself here for a time to put my mind into some kind of order. It is a terribly difficult thing, of course, to be among strangers so much of the day. But perhaps I'll be able to see and create something new. For the time being, I would like more peace and absolute seclusion. Of course, I long more and more for my work and my studio. Theories may be all very well for keeping a spiritual balance, but they are grey and shadowy compared with work and life".
Throughout 1916, Kirchner periodically returned to Berlin for a few weeks at a time to continue his work at his studio; he also produced a series of oil paintings, and many drawings, during his stays in Königstein. After an exhibition of his work at the gallery of Ludwig Schames, in Frankfurt am Main, in October 1916, Kirchner sold many works and began to do well financially. In December, he suffered from a nervous breakdown and was admitted to Dr. Edel's sanatorium in Berlin-Charlottenburg.
Davos, 1917-1938 In 1917, at the suggestion of , Helene Spengler invited Kirchner to Davos. He arrived on 19 January 1917. There he visited an exhibition of Ferdinand Hodler's paintings. His visit to Davos coincided with a spell of exceptionally cold weather, and he returned to Berlin after only ten days.
Grisebach visited him in March 1917, writing to Helene Spengler of Kirchner's condition: "I spent two mornings with Kirchner which I shall never forget. I found him sitting on a very low chair next to a small, hot stove in a yellow-painted, sloping-roofed attic. Only with the help of a stick was he able to walk, staggering around the room. ... A colourfully painted curtain concealed a large collection of paintings. When we began to look at them, he came alive. Together with me, he saw all his experiences drift by on canvas, the small, timid-looking woman set aside what we had seen and brought a bottle of wine. He made short explanatory remarks in a weary voice. Each picture had its own particular colourful character, a great sadness was present in all of them; what I had previously found to be incomprehensible and unfinished now created the same delicate and sensitive impression as his personality. Everywhere a search for style, for psychological understanding of his figures. The most moving was a self- portrait in uniform with his right hand cut off. Then he showed me his travel permit for Switzerland. He wanted to go back to Davos... and implored me to ask father for a medical certificate. ... As the woman with him rightly said, though many people want to help him, nobody is able to do so any longer. ... When I was leaving, I thought of Van Gogh's fate and thought that it would be his as well, sooner or later. Only later will people understand and see how much he has contributed to painting".
In April 1917, Kirchner's close friend and mentor Botho Graef died. Kirchner decided to return to Davos for treatment. There he was under the care of lung-specialist Dr. Lucius Spengler, who forced Kirchner to adhere to strict rules and routine. Kirchner deeply resented this and did everything in his power to deceive the doctor: "Spengler didn't know what to do with me, for my deception was totally alien to this excellent man's way of thinking". To avoid being under constant watch, Kirchner moved to the Reusch Hut on the Stafelalp in the summer of 1917. All this time, Erna Schilling had stayed in Berlin, looking after the apartment and studio and making sure that commercial and personal contacts in Germany were not neglected. Towards the end of August, Kirchner had a further visit from Henry van de Velde.
Kirchner continued to experience depression, occasional pain and paralysis of his limbs but wrote in a more cheerful tone to Dr. Hagemann at the end of July: "I wish to remain in the world and for the world. The high mountains here will help me". The summer 1917 was very productive despite Kirchner's illness. He finished some important pieces during the two months, such as "View of the Church in Monstein" and "Rising Moon in the Stafelalp". Together with 11 woodcuts, these works marked the start of Kirchner's Alpine life.