Lot Essay
Kirchner spent the summer of 1913 with Erna Schilling and his young MUIM pupils Werner Gothein (probably the subject of this lithograph) and Hans Gewecke on the island of Fehmarn in the Baltic. For the artist, Fehmarn had the exotic and primitive qualities that other expressionists looked for in the South Seas.
In the works resulting from the two Fehmarn summers of 1912-13 the figures often take on a new monumentality in contrast to the earlier Moritzburg scenes. Both figure and landscape, however, form a tight rhythmic unity within the composition of rapid, bold strokes and flat colour planes.
The artist would have produced this lithograph on his return to Berlin in the Autumn of 1913 and the dynamic qualities of line and striking impact of the colours lend an otherwise idyllic scene all the intensity of the Berlin street-scenes which Kirchner was embarking on at this time.
In the works resulting from the two Fehmarn summers of 1912-13 the figures often take on a new monumentality in contrast to the earlier Moritzburg scenes. Both figure and landscape, however, form a tight rhythmic unity within the composition of rapid, bold strokes and flat colour planes.
The artist would have produced this lithograph on his return to Berlin in the Autumn of 1913 and the dynamic qualities of line and striking impact of the colours lend an otherwise idyllic scene all the intensity of the Berlin street-scenes which Kirchner was embarking on at this time.