Lot Essay
Kirchner spent the summer of 1913 with his partner Erna Schilling on the island of Fehmarn, off the east coast of Schleswig-Holstein. For the artist, the island had the exotic and primitive qualities that other expressionists had found in the south seas.
The stylized bodies of the three female bathers form a dynamic and rythmic unity with the swelling movement of the waves. Man and nature are in perfect equilibrium. As Kirchner wrote about his time on Fehmarn in 1912 and 1913: 'Hier lernte ich die letzte Einheit von Mensch und Natur gestalten und vollendete das, was ich in Moritzburg angefangen hatte,' (Quoted in E. L. Kirchner. Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik 1905-1936, Hamburg, Frankfurt 1978, p. 28.)
Among the bathing scenes produced in 1912 and 1913 Badende in Wellen ranks among the artist's more dynamic and exciting achievements in the medium of lithography.
The stylized bodies of the three female bathers form a dynamic and rythmic unity with the swelling movement of the waves. Man and nature are in perfect equilibrium. As Kirchner wrote about his time on Fehmarn in 1912 and 1913: 'Hier lernte ich die letzte Einheit von Mensch und Natur gestalten und vollendete das, was ich in Moritzburg angefangen hatte,' (Quoted in E. L. Kirchner. Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik 1905-1936, Hamburg, Frankfurt 1978, p. 28.)
Among the bathing scenes produced in 1912 and 1913 Badende in Wellen ranks among the artist's more dynamic and exciting achievements in the medium of lithography.