Street scenes

The street scenes form a group of works that the painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner created between 1913 and 1915. This consists of eleven paintings , numerous sheets of sketchbooks , ink brush drawings , pastel and chalk drawings as well as prints . The pictures are in Berlin originated and include the issue of up to metropolis developing city, with special attention to the vibrant street life with the so-called here cocottes , elegant demimonde women as a metaphor for hectic, being driven and sensuality in the growing city. The cycle has numerous references in literature and is considered one of the most important works of German Expressionism .

painting

The paintings are the central works within the cycle of street scenes. The series began in late 1913 with Five Women on the Street . The dynamics of the compositions increased in the course of the composition. Kirchner resorted to the stylistic devices of Futurism , but the works also show mannerist elements. Most of the pictures were taken in 1914 and Kirchner completed most of the work by 1915, but he did not finish some of the paintings until later in the 1920s.

The following list contains both the German and the English titles; they are based on the catalog raisonné by Donald E. Gordon . Since the names are partly very similar, the catalog raisonné number (WVZ) was also given for better differentiation and to avoid confusion.

Illustration	Title, VMS No. and further information	Provenance
	Five women on the street (Five Women on the Street) 1915, oil on canvas, WVZ 362 120 × 90 cm It is the first painting in the cycle and shows five cocottes standing on a sidewalk.	Museum Ludwig , Cologne The painting was bought by the Folkwang Museum in Essen in 1926 , confiscated there on July 6, 1937 as part of the “ Degenerate Art ” campaign and shown in the eponymous exhibition until November 1937 . It was then stored in the Schönhausen Castle depot as an “internationally usable” work of art and in March 1940 came to the Ferdinand Möller gallery in Berlin. In 1947 it was sold through the Günther Franke Gallery, Munich, to the collector Josef Haubrich , who gave it as a gift to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne. In 1976 it was taken over from there by the Museum Ludwig .
	Berlin Street Scene (Berlin Street Scene) 1913/1914, oil on canvas, CR 363 121 × 95 cm	New Gallery , New York The painting was in 2006 by an as Causa Kirchner designated Return dispute in the best interest of the public. It was formerly the property of the art collector Alfred Hess . In 1936, his widow Thekla Hess arranged for the work to be sent to the Kunstverein in Cologne. From there it was sold to the Frankfurt art collector Carl Hagemann at the end of 1936 under unknown circumstances . Hagemann's heirs gave the painting to Ernst Holzinger in 1948 , and in 1980 the widow Holzinger sold it to the city of Berlin, where it was exhibited in the Brücke Museum . In 2006, the city of Berlin returned the street scene to the Hess heirs in compliance with the principles of the Washington Declaration of 1998. On November 8, 2006, it was auctioned at Christie's New York auction house, and the " New Gallery " in New York became the new owner .
	The road (The Street) 1913, oil on canvas, CR 364 120.6 × 91.1 cm	Museum of Modern Art , New York The painting was bought by the Berlin National Gallery in 1920 and exhibited in the Kronprinzenpalais. In 1937 it was confiscated as part of the “ Degenerate Art ” campaign. From October 1938 it was stored in the Schönhausen Castle depot and in February 1939 it was sold to the Museum of Modern Art in New York via the art dealer Karl Buchholz .
	Street Scene Berlin 1913, oil on canvas, WVZ 414 verso 69.9 × 50.8 cm The picture is the reverse of the painting Head Gräf from 1914.	Privately owned The painting remained in Kirchner's possession until his death and was sold to the collector Werner Brunner in St. Gallen via the estate in 1952 . In 1978 the gallery owner Roman Norbert Ketterer acquired it , in 1997 it was bought by the Canadian collector Charles Tabachnick via Sotheby’s in London and exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. In 2009 it was auctioned again and sold to an unknown buyer for £ 5.4 million.
	Street Scene (Street Scene) 1914/1922, oil on canvas, CR 365 70 × 48 cm	Private ownership, Switzerland
	Street with red cocotte (Street with Red Cocotte) 1914/1925, oil on canvas, CR 366 120 × 90 cm	Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection , Madrid
	Friedrichstrasse, Berlin (Friedrich Street, Berlin) 1914, oil on canvas, CR 367 125 × 91 cm	State Gallery , Stuttgart
	Leipziger Straße with Electric Tram also: Small Cityscape (Leipzig Street with Electric Tram) 1914, oil on canvas, CR 368 69.5 × 79 cm	Folkwang Museum , Essen
	Two women on the street (Two Women on the Street) 1914, oil on canvas, CR 369 120.5 × 91 cm	Art collection of North Rhine-Westphalia , Düsseldorf
	Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (Potsdam Square, Berlin) 1914, oil on canvas, CR 370 200 × 150 cm	New National Gallery , Berlin
	Women on the road (Women on the Street) 1915, oil on canvas, WVZ 427 126 × 90 cm	From the Heydt Museum , Wuppertal

Drawings and graphics

Kirchner's extensive examination of the subject can also be seen in the 32 sketches , 15 ink drawings , 17 pastel and chalk drawings , 14 woodcuts , some of which were hand-colored, 14 etchings and eight lithographs . A small selection is collected below.

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  Potsdamer Platz, chalk drawing 1914

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  Red cocotte, chalk drawing 1914

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  Street scene with a green cocotte, chalk drawing 1914

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  Street scene with a green lady, chalk drawing 1914

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  Two cocottes, chalk drawing 1914

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  Berlin street scene, India ink drawing 1914

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  Three cocottes by night, etching 1914

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  Five cocottes, woodcut 1915

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  Cocotte on the street, woodcut 1915

Quote

“Bloated, you stagger to work, when all work is in vain and the onslaught of mediocrity outlines everything. Like the cocotte that I painted, you are yourself now. Wiped away, gone the next time. Nevertheless, I still try to bring order to my thoughts and to create a picture of time from what is confusing, which is my job. "

- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner : in a letter to Gustav Schiefler on November 12, 1916

literature

• Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Correspondence 1910 - 1935/1938 , with letters from and to Luise Schiefler and Erna Kirchner as well as other documents from Schiefler's correspondence file. Edited by Wolfgang Henze in conjunction with Annemarie Dube-Heynig and Magdalena Kraemer-Noble. Belser Verlag, Stuttgart Zurich 1990, ISBN 978-3-7630-1969-4
• Exhibition catalog Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1880-1938 , National Gallery Berlin, House of Art Munich, Museum Ludwig in the Kunsthalle Cologne, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1979/1980
• Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. From Jena to Davos. An exhibition on the 90th anniversary of the Jenaer Kunstverein, Leipzig 1993, ISBN 3-363-00596-2
• Andreas Gabelmann: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. An artist's life in self-testimonies . Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2010, ISBN 978-3-7757-2526-2 .
• Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Critical catalog raisonné. Munich 1968.
• Lothar Grisebach: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's Davos diary , new edition by Lucius Grisebach, Ostfildern b. Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-7757-0622-4 .
• Lucius Grisebach: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1880-1938 . Cologne: Taschen, 1995, ISBN 3-8228-8800-1
• Magdalene M. Moeller: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The street scenes 1913-1915 . Hirmer Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-7774-6190-3
• Gerd Presler: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The sketchbooks. Ecstasy of first seeing , Karlsruhe / Davos 1996, pp. 94–100: Street scenes as a field of movement for many. ISBN 3-925521-25-9
• Christian Saehrendt : EL Kirchner: Bohème identity and national broadcast. Frankfurt 2003, ISBN 3-631-50128-5 .
• Christian Saehrendt: An old master of self-staging In: Roland March and Katharina Henkel (eds.), Der Potsdamer Platz. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and the Fall of Prussia (Catalog Nationalgalerie Berlin), Berlin 2001
• Eugen Wypich: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Paintings 1911–1917. Analytical studies on the work structure . Inaugural dissertation to obtain a doctorate in Faculty 08 History of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen. Giessen 1983

On cultural urban development, especially Berlin :

• Jutta Held, Norbert Schneider: Social history of painting , Dumont, Cologne 1993, 2nd edition 1998, ISBN 3-8321-7400-1
• Eberhard Roters: Berlin 1910-1933. The visual arts . Art book, Berlin, 1983
• Karl Scheffler: Berlin - A City Fate , Erich Reiss Verlag, Berlin, 1910
• Georg Simmel: The big cities and the intellectual life , Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2006, ISBN 3-5180-6857-1

Regarding the term expressionist arts :

• Gunter E. Grimm, Frank Rainer Max (ed.): German poets. Volume 7. From the beginning to the middle of the 20th century. Reclam, Stuttgart, 1989, ISBN 3-1500-8617-5
• Karl Ludwig Schneider: Broken Shapes. Word and image in expressionism . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg, 1967

To the picture of the cocotte :

• Alfred Döblin: virginity and prostitution ; in: Kleine Schriften I , 1985, ISBN 3-530-16687-1 .
• Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus . The life of the German composer Adrian Leverkühn tells about a friend. 1-7 Thousand Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin / Frankfurt am Main 1947
• Hans Ostwald: The Berliner. Cultural and moral history of Berlin , Berlin 1921
• Richard J. Evans: Prostitution, State and Society in Imperial Germany , in: Past and Present, No. 70, February 1976, pp. 106-129

Individual evidence

1. ^ Magdalene M. Moeller: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The street scenes 1913–1915 . Hirmer Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-7774-6190-3 , p. 27
2. ^ Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968, p. 100 ff.
3. ↑ Catalog raisonné No. 362, based on: Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968
4. ↑ Catalog raisonné No. 363, based on: Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968
5. ↑ Gunnar Schnabel, Monika Tatzkow: Expert opinion - historical and legal basis for the return of the painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner "Berlin street scene" ( Memento of the original from August 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated May 25, 2007; accessed October 1, 2016 
6. ↑ Catalog raisonné No. 364, based on: Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968
7. ↑ Catalog raisonné No. 414 on the reverse, after: Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968
8. ^ Sotheby's London press release, January 2009 , accessed October 1, 2016
9. ↑ Catalog raisonné No. 365, based on: Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968
10. ↑ Catalog raisonné No. 366, based on: Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968
11. ↑ Catalog raisonné No. 367, based on: Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968
12. ↑ Catalog raisonné No. 368, based on: Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968
13. ↑ Catalog raisonné No. 369, based on: Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968
14. ↑ Catalog raisonné No. 370, based on: Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968
15. ↑ Catalog raisonné No. 427, based on: Donald E. Gordon: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With a critical catalog of all paintings , Munich 1968
16. ^ Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Gustav Schiefler: Correspondence: 1910 - 1935/1938 , p. 86