Park. 1916.
Pen and India ink drawing.
With the estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and the handwritten registration number “F Be / Aa 14” on the reverse. On yellowish wove paper. 20.3 x 30 cm (7.9 x 11.8 in), nearly the full sheet. [CH].


• With its dynamic, energetic strokes, the drawing is rooted in his creative years in Berlin during the First World War.
• In the winter of 1915/1916, the artist spent a few weeks at the Dr. Kohnstamm sanatorium in Königstein im Taunus and returned in the spring of the same year for a commission to decorate its fountain house.
• Historical photographs of the sanatorium and the small surrounding park suggest that Kirchner created the present drawing during this stay.
• The murals created by Kirchner were irretrievably destroyed around 1937/38.

This work is documented in the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern.

PROVENANCE: Estate of the artist (Davos 1938, Kunstmuseum Basel 1946).
Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett Roman Norbert Ketterer, Stuttgart (1954).
Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp, Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 1995-2001).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2001-2017).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, pp. 264f., SHG no. 385 (illu., p. 265).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 342, SHG no. 770 (illu.).

"The works of the Taunus period quietly usher in a new stylistic phase in Kirchner's work."
Annemarie Dube-Heynig, quoted from: E. L. Kirchner - Graphik, Munich 1961, p. 62.

In good condition. Edges minimally irregular. Lower right corner with a diagonal crease, the other corners slightly bumped. Very few minimal handling marks and rubbed spots in the margins.