Sale: 533 / Modern Art Day Sale and Gerlinger Collection, Dec. 10. 2022 in Munich Lot 418

 

418
Mappenwerk / Portfolio
5. Jahresmappe der Künstlergruppe "Brücke", gewidmet Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1910.
Portfolio with two (color-) woodcuts and an etc...
Estimate:
€ 70,000 / $ 77,000
Sold:
€ 250,000 / $ 275,000

(incl. surcharge)
5. Jahresmappe der Künstlergruppe "Brücke", gewidmet Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. 1910.
Portfolio with two (color-) woodcuts and an etching by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and with a title woodcut by Erich Heckel.
Sheet (wrapper): 42 x 55.1 cm (16.5 x 21.6 in).
Contains: Erich Heckel. "Kniende Akte - Umschlag 'Brücke'-Mappe Ernst Ludwig Kirchner". 1910. Ebner/Gabelmann 435 H. Söhn HDO 215-1. Monogrammed in printing block. On yellow wove paper (double sheet). 29.8 x 39.9 cm (11.7 15.7 in). Sheet: 42 x 55.1 cm (16.5 x 21.7 in).
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. "Tänzerin mit gehobenem Rock". 1909. Woodcut. Gercken 376. Söhn HDO 215-3. Signed. On firm wove paper. 25 x 33.9 cm (9.8 x 13.3). Sheet: 40 x 54 cm (15.7 x 21.3 in).
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. "Mit Schilf werfende Badende". 1909. Color woodcut. Gercken 375. Söhn HDO 215-2. Signed. On firm wove paper. 19.9 x 29.2 cm (7.8 x 11.5 in). Sheet: 40.2 x 53.9 cm (15.8 x 21.2 in).
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. "Drei Badende am Moritzburger See". 1909. Etching. Gercken 377. Söhn HDO 215-4. Signed. On firm wove paper. 17.8 x 20.5 cm (7 x 8.1 in). Sheet: 40.1 x 53.7 cm (15.8 x 21.1 in).
The complete 5h annual portfolio. [AM]

Initially, each sheet will be called up individually and in the following as the complete portfolio.

• Expressive and rich compilation of three sheets by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner with a lavishly made wrapper by Erich Heckel.
• Man and motion, dance and bath – these motifs are at the core of the three Kirchner works.
• Other complete copies of this rare portfolio are at, among others, the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, the County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, and the Sprengel Museum, Hanover
.

PROVENANCE: Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from the Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 1995-2001).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from the Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2001-2017).
Expressiv! Die Künstler der Brücke. Die Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Albertina, Vienna, June 1 - August 26, 2007, cat. no. 133 and 134 (with color illu.).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Hans Bolliger, E. W. Kornfeld, Ausstellung Künstlergruppe Brücke. Jahresmappen 1906-1912, Bern 1958, pp. 18-19, no. 17-20 (different copy).
Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, pp. 111-112, SHG no. 64-67.
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 175, SHG no. 392; pp. 307-308, SHG no. 695-697.

In 1910, the annual bonus was dedicated to Kirchner and the cover was made by Heckel. The year 1910 is the culmination of the collective work of the "Brücke": working together outdoors at the Moritzburg Ponds is an act of artistic liberation. In the Berlin dispute about the Secession and the New Secession, the "Brücke" artists immediately played an important role. And Kirchner was able to cut the names of 68 passive members into small plates and present them in the "Brücke" catalog of Galerie Arnold in Dresden. (Lot …) Kirchner's annual portfolio, probably compiled at the beginning of 1910, and Heckel's cover page testify to the artists’ new confidence. In terms of dynamics and novelty of motifs, the 1910 portfolio 1910 surpasses all previous ones. Here the expressionist "Brücke" style exemplifies itself at its height, on a par with the movement of the French "Fauves", whose main representative Matisse showed up at his first German solo exhibition at Paul Cassirer in Berlin in 1909 .
Two female nudes, tugging back and forth, crouch on Heckel's cover as if on a stage, the bright yellow of the paper acting as a bright spotlight on the scene. Kirchner draws the group in the three-color woodcut "Bathers Throwing with Reeds" as "savages" liberated from the constraints of civilization. Simplified with elementary expressive signs, the four figures, momentarily frozen in their pulsating dynamism, sink into the deep green of the lake and its shores surrounding them. The “Tänzerin mit gehobenem Rock" (Dancer with lifted Skirt) seems to tumble out of the picture. On the dance and cabaret stage, society is still most likely to experience those immediate and unadulterated expressive qualities that artists sought in the studio and in nature at the time. Dance and frenzy, the boldly elongated arms, the figure in striking topview, the rapid diagonal axes show the woodcut in a magnificent quality. In contrast to this fierceness, Kirchner reduces the scene to a few sketchy lines in the third sheet of the portfolio, the etching "Drei Badende am Moritzburger See" (Three Bathers at Moritzburg Pond), however, he still creates tremendous presence. [MvL]



418
Mappenwerk / Portfolio
5. Jahresmappe der Künstlergruppe "Brücke", gewidmet Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1910.
Portfolio with two (color-) woodcuts and an etc...
Estimate:
€ 70,000 / $ 77,000
Sold:
€ 250,000 / $ 275,000

(incl. surcharge)