Alpine Kitchen

Last updated
Alpine Kitchen
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Cocina alpina.jpg
Artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Year1918
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions121,5 cm× 121,5 cm(478 in× 478 in)
Location Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

Alpine Kitchen is an oil painting on canvas by German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, executed in 1918. It was made when the painter was temporarily living in a mountain hut in the Alps, at 1900 meters of height, above Davos. The house still exists almost in his original form. The painting came from Kirchner's estate and today belongs to the collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. [1]

History and description

The painting has a square format with the dimensions of 121.5 by 121.5 cm. It is signed, with a small signature at the bottom right that reads EL Kirchner and on the back is the name KN-Da/Ad2. In Donald E. Gordon's catalog raisonné it bears the number 518. [2] It was exhibited in Frankfurt/Main in 1922 and in Berlin in 1926.

The painting depicts a room with several households, in a rustic style. At the table, hunched over, sits a person who Roman Norbert Ketterer, Kirchner's estate administrator, but also Felix Krämer, assume is the artist himself working on a lithographic stone. The British art historian Peter Vergo, however, suspects that it is instead his partner Erna Schilling.

The view falls through the open door over the terrace, further over the other chalets of the Stafelalp and extends to the southwestern Tinzenhorn, which in this canvas forms the perspective vanishing point, and which often appears as a painterly motif in his Davos paintings.

Kirchner rented the small mountain hut from a local farmer and entered it for the first time in the early Summer of 1918. Much was still lacking in terms of furnishings and materials, but it was ready for artistic work. In June 1918 he wrote to his friend Henry van de Velde that "the rooms were very unusual, the cracks between the woods were stuffed with moss, and there was a 'beautiful pot-bellied stove' in the kitchen". The artist lived here in the summers of his first Davos years. After his traumatic experience at World War I, Kirchner felt healthy again and was able to paint. By the Christmas of 1918, however, he felt no longer able to continue working on the paintings he had begun. [3]

The art historian Felix Krämer writes that in this painting, in contrast to earlier interior depictions of Kirchner where the figures "dominate their surroundings", there is a difference, because "here the space overlaps with its aligned lines and the strong luminosity of the colors the figure. (...) The room loses its protective function (...), which can be associated with the insecure psyche of the resident." [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyonel Feininger</span> German-American painter

Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City. In 1887 he traveled to Europe and studied art in Hamburg, Berlin and Paris. He started his career as a cartoonist in 1894 and met with much success in this area. He also worked as a commercial caricaturist for 20 years. At the age of 36, he began to work as a fine artist. His work, characterized above all by prismatically broken, overlapping forms in translucent colors, with many references to architecture and the sea, made him one of the most important artists of classical modernism. Furthermore he produced a large body of photographic works and created several piano compositions and fugues for organ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angelica Kauffman</span> Swiss artist (1741–1807)

Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann, usually known in English as Angelica Kauffman, was a Swiss Neoclassical painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Remembered primarily as a history painter, Kauffman was a skilled portraitist, landscape and decoration painter. She was, along with Mary Moser, one of two female painters among the founding members of the Royal Academy in London in 1768.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Ludwig Kirchner</span> German expressionist painter (1880–1938)

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century art. He volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a breakdown and was discharged. His work was branded as "degenerate" by the Nazis in 1933, and in 1937 more than 600 of his works were sold or destroyed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum</span> Art museum in Madrid, Spain

The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain, located near the Prado Museum on one of the city's main boulevards. It is known as part of the "Golden Triangle of Art", which also includes the Prado and the Reina Sofía national galleries. The Thyssen-Bornemisza fills the historical gaps in its counterparts' collections: in the Prado's case this includes Italian primitives and works from the English, Dutch and German schools, while in the case of the Reina Sofía it concerns Impressionists, Expressionists, and European and American paintings from the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willi Baumeister</span> German painter

Willi Baumeister was a German painter, scenic designer, art professor, and typographer. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Rosefeldt</span> German artist and filmmaker (born 1965)

Julian Rosefeldt is a German artist and film-maker. Rosefeldt's work consists primarily of elaborate, visually opulent film and video installations, often shown as panoramic multi-channel projections. His installations range in style from documentary to theatrical narrative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Wilhelm Nay</span> German painter

Ernst Wilhelm Nay was a German painter and graphic designer of classical modernism. He is considered one of the most important painters of German post-war art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emilio Sánchez Perrier</span> Spanish artist (1855–1907)

Emilio Sánchez Perrier (1855-1907) was a Spanish landscape painter and watercolorist who also painted Orientalist subjects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos de Haes</span> Spanish painter from Belgium

Carlos Sebastián Pedro Hubert de Haes was a Spanish painter from Belgium. He was noted for the Realism in his landscapes, and was considered to be the "first contemporary Spanish artist able to capture something of a particularly Spanish 'essence' in his work". He was cited along with Jenaro Perez Villaamil and Aureliano de Beruete as one of the three Spanish grand masters of landscape painting, the latter of which was his pupil.

<i>Portrait of Winckelmann</i> Painting by Angelica Kauffman

Portrait of Winckelmann is an oil on canvas painting by the Swiss artist Angelica Kauffmann, from 1764. It was produced in Rome and represents the famous archaeologist and art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann, whose work greatly contributed to the revival of classical studies and the change in style from rococo to neoclassicism. It is signed at the lower right by the artist and is now in the Kunsthaus Zürich.

The street scenes are a series of works by the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made between 1913 and 1915. The cycle is regarded as one of the most important works of German expressionism. It consists of 11 paintings, 32 pages from sketchbooks, 15 ink brush drawings, 17 pastel and chalk drawings, 14 woodcuts, 14 etchings and 8 lithographs. The series deals with the Berlin of the early 20th century and its development into a metropolis. The works frequently depict "Koketten" (prostitutes), who serve as a metaphor for the hectic pace and sensuality of the growing city.

Jill Lloyd is a writer and curator specializing in twentieth-century art, with particular expertise for German and Austrian art. She has organised many critically acclaimed exhibitions for leading museums and has published widely, including her book German Expressionism, Primitivism and Modernity, which was awarded the first National Art Book Prize.

<i>The Croquet Game</i> 1873 painting by Édouard Manet

The Croquet Game is an 1873 oil on canvas painting by Édouard Manet, now in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. It shows a group of people playing croquet, a very fashionable game at that time. The group comprises the painter Alfred Stevens, artists' models Victorine Meurent and Alice Legouvé and, in the background, Manet's friend Paul Rodier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philipp Bauknecht</span> German painter

Philipp Bauknecht was a German Expressionist painter and graphic artist. Most of his works are landscapes and still-lifes.

<i>Self-Portrait as a Soldier</i> Painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Self-Portrait as a Soldier, or Selbstbildnis als Soldat, is an Expressionist oil-on-canvas painting by the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Kirchner created this self-depiction in 1915, following his medical discharge from military service during the First World War. The artwork measures 69 centimetres in height by 61 centimetres in width. The painting was first exhibited in the 'Städtische Galerie' in Germany between 1916 and 1919 and currently resides at the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Ohio USA. Critical interpretations of the painting attribute its stark Expressionist style and myriad of symbolic elements to the socio-political turbulence of Germany during the First World War. Self Portrait as a Soldier may be viewed as testimony to Kirchner's volatile mental and physical health and as a critique of the chaotic instability of Germany during the early 20th century.

Roman Norbert Ketterer was a German auctioneer, gallery owner and art dealer.

<i>Portrait of Erna Schilling</i> Painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Portrait of Erna Schilling, also known as Sick Woman or Woman with an Hat, is an oil-on-canvas painting executed in 1913 by the German Expressionist artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. It depicts the nightclub dancer Erna Schilling, from Berlin, who after Kirchner's move from Dresden to Berlin in 1911, became his friend and model. The portrait shows Kirchner's signature on the top left: EL Kirchner. It has been in the collection of the National Gallery, in Berlin, since 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirchner Museum Davos</span> Museum in Davos, Switzerland

The Kirchner Museum Davos is an art museum dedicated to the life and work of the German Expressionist artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, located in Davos, Switzerland. Kirchner lived in Davos from 1918 to 1938, and was inspired to create many of his works there.

<i>Archers</i> (Kirchner) Painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Archers is an oil-on-canvas painting by German painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, created in 1935–1937, at his Swiss home town of Davos. It belongs to his last phase, in which he abandoned the Expressionism of his earlier work. The painting depicts three people engaged in the sport of archery. On the back it bears the signature EL Kirchner. The painting is part of the collection of the Kirchner Museum Davos.

<i>The Bridge near Wiesen</i> 1926 painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

The Bridge near Wiesen, also known as The Bridge at Wiesen, is an oil-on-canvas painting by the German painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, from 1926. It depicts the Wiesen Viaduct, south of Davos, in Switzerland. It is signed on the bottom right of the center and is dated '26' on the back. The painting is held at the Kirchner Museum Davos.

References

  1. Alpine Kitchen, Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum
  2. Donald Edward Gordon, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Mit einem kritischen Katalog sämtlicher Gemälde, Munich, 1968 (German)
  3. Felix Krämer, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Retrospektive. Ausstellungskatalog, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, 2010 (German)
  4. Felix Krämer, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Retrospektive. Ausstellungskatalog, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, 2010 (German)
  5. "Darstellung im Ausstellungskatalog der Berliner Nationalgalerie: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner", Berlin, 1979 (German)