Ernst Kirchner ~ Landscapes from Switzerland

In the post the other day, I mentioned the prevalence of the color blue in Ernst Kirchner's work. Winter Landscape by Moonlight is an oil that Kirchner painted in 1919. By some standards at almost four feet by four feet, it is quite large. The sky painted using red and yellow is almost a golden color filling the air with a warmth shown in those red trees on the blue slopes, the ever present blue. The painting is said to be a view from Kirchner's window in Davos where he moved after being in and out of sanatoriums for his physical and mental decline brought on after his brief time serving in World War I. Although his days are calmer in 1919, those clouds racing across the sky harken back to those hectic days spent in Berlin.

Somewhat later in the 20's Kirchner life and health returned. He remained in Switzerland and his art became calmer achieving a certain balance and composure that hadn't been there before. Landscapes were the focus of his work. His forms became more simplified and stylized. He collaborated with the weaver Lise Gujer during this period. He wrote in his diary of a new approach to painting: "I see a new way of painting becoming possible, with more independent planes, toward which I must already have always been steering. The new way of painting in more independent planes marks the beginning of the Wildboden style." He called this a "tapestry style" where the subject was built from individual areas of vivid color. Wildboden (shown just to the right) painted in 1927-28 reflects this new approach. Stylistically, the Portland Art Museum's Fir Trees falls somewhere in between.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner ~ Berlin to Switzerland, Style and Theme Changes

Berlin Street Scene is the one painting most people think of when they hear the name Ernst Kirchner. Painted in 1913-1914 it preceded Fir Trees by about twelve years. Much had happened in Kirchner's life when he painted this and much would soon happen to forever change the course of his life and work.

In 1911, Ernst Kirchner had left Dresden and moved to Berlin. He not only moved but he also left the woman he had been living with, Doris Grosse. Dodo had refused to move with him. It wasn't until the next year in June that he met Erna Schilling and her sister Gerda. They became the subject of his paintings much as Dodo had in Dresden. Gerda drops out of their lives in 1914; Erna and Ernst remain together until his suicide in 1938. Berlin Street Scene reflects the frantic pace of Kirchner's life and life in Berlin during this period. Elongated lines are used to depict all of his figures. Bold primary colors dominate.

Berlin Street Scene was part of "Street Scene", a series of painting of life in Berlin. Kirchner began this series in 1913, the year die Brucke was disbanded. In 1914, he completed Berlin Street Scene, but also felt compelled to join the artillery to avoid conscription in the army after World War I broke out. He asked to be a driver for the artillery but even this was too strenuous for him physically and mentally and he was discharged in 1915. For the next several years, Kirchner was in and out of sanitarioms in both Germany and Switzerland.

It was in Switzerland that Kirchner remained for the rest of his life. His life became calmer and that shows in his work.His brushstrokes broadened and his work centered on landscapes, bucolic, certainly more peaceful than the frantic Berlin life. His color palate involved bold primaries, but many times seemed predominately blue, the blue that links Berlin Street Scene and Fir Trees.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner ~ Fir Trees

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner painted Fir Trees in 1925. Kirchner is probably best known for having started the German group Die Brucke in 1905 with four others. Die Brücke promoted the freedom of artistic expression attempting to bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary art which in turn advanced the cause of  "Expressionist" art. Many people remember Kirchner's work from this period when he painted portraits, nudes, and street scenes as well as interiors of nightclubs. However, his art took a shift thematically when he was sent to Switzerland after having been discharged early from the military during World War I. Although Kirchner visited Berlin and other cities periodically before his death in 1938, he remained in Switzerland for twenty tree years, ultimately becoming a Swiss citizen in 1937. Surrounded by mountains and trees, these parts of nature became the focal point of his art. 

The trees here look to be part of a very cold environment – the blue enveloping the trees and the viewer with a chill. Lowering the temperature even more are the drifts of white, perhaps snow or ice filled clouds. Look carefully though and there seems to be some warmth coming through with the dark red of the lower parts of the tree and brighter red at the top.

At one point Fir Trees was part of a "tree triptych" on the first floor of the Portland Art Museum's Center for Modern and Contemporary Art. It was hung near Andre Derain's Pine Tree and Theo van Doesberg's very cubist Tree. Now it stand alone amongst the other examples of art from 1915 to 1940. It is almost directly across from Karl Hofer's Early Hour our piece of the week for Week 15 – two paintings that evoke a pensive mood for me and perhaps for Kirchner too. There are still six more days to this week to explore that thought.