Lot Essay
Kirchner's interest in the theme of the dance hall dates from 1908-9. He and other Brcke artists frequented many of the halls in Dresden, particularly the Central-Theater, the Eldorado, the Flora and the Viktoria-Salon. His specific interest in Russian dancers was stimulated by the visit to Dresden by dancers of the St. Petersburg Court Theatre. The couple have been identified by Bernd Hhnlich in Dresdner Kunstblätter 27 (Yr. 83, 1, pp. 21-5) as Olga Preobrajensky and Georges Kiatschk of this dance company. A postcard, postmarked 'Dresden 10.9.09', which Kirchner sent to 'Maler E. Heckel' in Dangast, bears a very similar composition executed in pen and coloured crayons. Kirchner describes the venue as the Central-Theater with his note to Heckel, 'Russische Tänzerin im Central ganz nett. Besten Gruss Dein Ernst' (A. Dube-Heynig, E. L. Kirchner, Postkarten und Briefe an Erich Heckel, Altonaer Museum, Hamburg, 1984, no. 6). There also exists an oil painting executed in 1909, later reworked in 1926 (Gordon 75).
Kirchner's lithographic technique at this early stage of his activity as a printmaker was highly innovative and in part a product of the obvious financial difficulties under which the artist had to work. Stones were very expensive and used time and again for different prints. Antony Griffiths calculates roughly that the majority of Kirchner's lithographs were printed from as few as nine stones, Heckel's from seven, that Schmidt-Rottluff used only one from 1908-11, and that Pechstein employed only three stones for his early prints (F. Carey and A. Griffiths, The Print in Germany 1880-1933, British Museum, London, 1984).
For the different stages of printing the Russisches Tänzerpaar Kirchner used just the one stone; the distinct outlines of the stone, which has been well inked for each pull, shows evidence of black, blue and red ink. The first colour was the black applied with a rich crayon to the very smoothly rubbed surface of the stone. The subsequent printing of the blue, red and lime-yellow colours would have been executed in separate stages with the areas that hold colours drawn onto the stone in a very different manner to that of the black crayon.
Kirchner is known to have fixed certain areas of prints to the lithographic stone using varying intensities of acid, sometimes in association with turpentine. This may have been done with the areas of colours on this print which could explain their rather granular appearance. The actual method of applying the coloured inks to the stone is uncertain and may have been done in a monotypal fashion rather than with a roller.
The exact number of impressions is unrecorded but the technical and financial difficulties involved in production suggest that the edition was extremely small for this major work dating from the early and lyrical years of German Expressionism.
Kirchner's lithographic technique at this early stage of his activity as a printmaker was highly innovative and in part a product of the obvious financial difficulties under which the artist had to work. Stones were very expensive and used time and again for different prints. Antony Griffiths calculates roughly that the majority of Kirchner's lithographs were printed from as few as nine stones, Heckel's from seven, that Schmidt-Rottluff used only one from 1908-11, and that Pechstein employed only three stones for his early prints (F. Carey and A. Griffiths, The Print in Germany 1880-1933, British Museum, London, 1984).
For the different stages of printing the Russisches Tänzerpaar Kirchner used just the one stone; the distinct outlines of the stone, which has been well inked for each pull, shows evidence of black, blue and red ink. The first colour was the black applied with a rich crayon to the very smoothly rubbed surface of the stone. The subsequent printing of the blue, red and lime-yellow colours would have been executed in separate stages with the areas that hold colours drawn onto the stone in a very different manner to that of the black crayon.
Kirchner is known to have fixed certain areas of prints to the lithographic stone using varying intensities of acid, sometimes in association with turpentine. This may have been done with the areas of colours on this print which could explain their rather granular appearance. The actual method of applying the coloured inks to the stone is uncertain and may have been done in a monotypal fashion rather than with a roller.
The exact number of impressions is unrecorded but the technical and financial difficulties involved in production suggest that the edition was extremely small for this major work dating from the early and lyrical years of German Expressionism.