Lot Essay
Commissioned by Joseph Feinhals to design murals for his company's tobacco collection in the Werkbund-Ausstellung, Kirchner travelled from Berlin to Cologne in May 1914. Three etchings (Dube 190-2), one painting and the present lithograph testify to his stay in Cologne. The lithograph is closely related to 'Rheinbrücke', the oil-painting which is in the National Galerie in Berlin.
Fascinated by the angular rhythm of the metropolis and the transformation of its occupants into stereotypical, dehumanized marionettes, Kirchner started making his famous street scenes in the autumn of 1913. In Rheinbrücke bei Köln, the dynamic perspective of the bridge and the exaggerated elongation of the road and figures stretch up to the spires of the Cologne Cathedral in a Gothic manner. In its precipitous perspective which propels the frail pedestrians forward, it is typical of the artist's urban scenes of 1914. It has the psychological drama of his finest street scenes.
Fascinated by the angular rhythm of the metropolis and the transformation of its occupants into stereotypical, dehumanized marionettes, Kirchner started making his famous street scenes in the autumn of 1913. In Rheinbrücke bei Köln, the dynamic perspective of the bridge and the exaggerated elongation of the road and figures stretch up to the spires of the Cologne Cathedral in a Gothic manner. In its precipitous perspective which propels the frail pedestrians forward, it is typical of the artist's urban scenes of 1914. It has the psychological drama of his finest street scenes.