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Lot Essay
A dramatic and masterfully painted sketch that was to give rise to one of Kirchner’s best-known paintings, this gouache and pastel sketch depicts a reclining nude lying under a Japanese umbrella in the corner of Kirchner’s studio. It is dated on the reverse by Kirchner as being a work from 1905, but in all other respects, in its subject matter and confident free-form execution, it is a picture typical of Kirchner’s work around 1909. Indeed, it appears to be a sketch for Kirchner’s great painting of his mistress Dodo lying under a Japanese umbrella now in the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Dusseldorf. A compositional mirror-image of this gouache, Kirchner dated this famously bold and colourful oil painting as being from 1906 even though it is now known to have been painted in 1909.
A major exhibition of Henri Matisse’s work held in Berlin at the beginning of 1909 prompted a radical change in Kirchner’s art, enlivening his use of flat planes of colour, freeing his graphic impulse in the use of outline and emboldening his expressive use of non-naturalistic colour to heighten the sense of emotional engagement with the subject matter. Although Matisse’s influence had nothing but a positive effect on Kirchner’s art, the German artist was initially fearful of acknowledging his debt to the French master and often sought to pre-date some of his more heavily Matisse-inspired works to before the date of the Berlin exhibition.
With its bold sweeping colour and swiftly executed line capturing the essence of Kirchner’s 1909 painting of Dodo with an umbrella - a work which with its patterned walls, decorative parasol and complete lack of outline, is all about colour – this gouache sketch reveals not only the impact of Matisse but also the complete command over form, colour and composition that Kirchner clearly shared with the great French artist.
A major exhibition of Henri Matisse’s work held in Berlin at the beginning of 1909 prompted a radical change in Kirchner’s art, enlivening his use of flat planes of colour, freeing his graphic impulse in the use of outline and emboldening his expressive use of non-naturalistic colour to heighten the sense of emotional engagement with the subject matter. Although Matisse’s influence had nothing but a positive effect on Kirchner’s art, the German artist was initially fearful of acknowledging his debt to the French master and often sought to pre-date some of his more heavily Matisse-inspired works to before the date of the Berlin exhibition.
With its bold sweeping colour and swiftly executed line capturing the essence of Kirchner’s 1909 painting of Dodo with an umbrella - a work which with its patterned walls, decorative parasol and complete lack of outline, is all about colour – this gouache sketch reveals not only the impact of Matisse but also the complete command over form, colour and composition that Kirchner clearly shared with the great French artist.