Three Nudes by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Art work details

Original Title :

Drei Akte

Year of production :

1920

Artist:

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Medium :

Drawing, Crayon

Materials:

Paper, Crayon

Dimensions :

height: 47 cms; width: 31 cms

Credit Line :

Purchased from Mrs Margaret Fisher with MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund assistance

Associated Groups :

Die Brücke, Berliner Secession

Tags:

Weimar Republic, Nudity, Portrait, Kirchner

The agitated lines and distorted forms give the impression of a rapidly executed sketch of the three female figures momentarily pausing in movement. Kirchner was a brilliant draughtsman who continually sketched from life.

Kirchner was the dynamic leader of the Brücke and its most ambitious and radical member. In the summers he often stayed in the country or on the coast, sometimes with Heckel or Pechstein, where he painted and sketched naked models in movement.

During the Berlin years, Kirchner moved away from the shared Brücke style and produced his great Berlin Street scenes in 1913-14. After developing mental and physical problems during the war he moved to Switzerland in 1917 where he remained till his death by suicide in 1938.