Live Auction 13878Prints & Multiples
ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER (1880-1938)
Lot 95

ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER (1880-1938)

Sich sonnende Badende

Closed29 March 2017

Estimate

GBP 25,000–35,000

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ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER (1880-1938)
Sich sonnende Badende
lithograph printed from one stone in black and green, 1909, signed in pencil, extremely rare (Gercken records only three impressions, including the present one), with margins, probably the full sheet, a horizontal fold across the sheet, some minor creases, a small brown stain at the right sheet edge, otherwise in good condition, framed
Image 180 x 210 mm., Sheet 223 x 335 mm.

Estate of the artist, with the estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) on the reverse, annotated in ink L 102 I.

Specialist note

This swiftly drawn bathing scene is one the earliest experiments in colour lithography by the artist. Only a handful of earlier examples exist, created very sporadically between 1907 and 1909. Kirchner used the same, quite small stone with the broken corners only for three other motifs, all of which exist in single impressions only (Gercken 317, 319 & 320). They already show the broken corners and crack in the stone, which is printing very prominently in green in the present impression. One can assume that the already damaged stone eventually broke in two and became at last unusable. This does not diminish the quality and charm of the image - the uneven edges and the crack only seem to add to the spontaneity of the scene and the raw style with which it is rendered.