Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Lot n° 37

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Bridge over the Rhine in Cologne (Hohenzollern Bridge). Verso: Drawing Two Girls in a Tub 1914 Original lithograph on wove paper. Verso: pencil drawing. 40.9/41.7 x 34.6 cm. Framed under glass. Unsigned. With the faded estate stamp (Lugt 1570 b) and the handwritten numbering "L 250 I" on the verso. Unique. Only known copy of this first state of printing. - In very good condition. Gercken 689 I; Dube 256 I ("Rheinbrücke bei Köln") Provenance Estate of the artist; Weinmüller, Munich, Auction 112 Modern Art, May 21, 1968, lot 172; privately owned, Hesse Literature For the 2nd print, see Magdalena M. Moeller, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Meisterwerke der Druckgraphik, exhib. Cat. Berlin, Essen, Bremen 1990/1991, p. 168 f.; Anita Beloubek-Hammer, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. First Seeing. Das Werk im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, Munich et al. 2004, cat. 107 G with ill. 70 For the preparatory sketches and drawings, see Gerd Presler, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Die Skizzenbücher "Ekstase des ersten Sehens", Weingarten 1996, p. 235, Skb 41 / 3, 4, 5; Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. 90 Zeichnungen für 90 Jahre, Hommage à Roman Norbert Ketterer, Galerie Henze & Ketterer, catalog 62, Wichtrach 2001, cat. No. 41 As the only copy of the first state of printing, this outstanding work with a drawing on the reverse is an absolute rarity. The "Rhine Bridge in Cologne" is an exceptional example of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's mastery of printmaking. Only one copy of this first state of printing with clear, bright lines exists; only five copies of the revised second state were printed, two of which are in museum collections. The painting based on this motif is in the possession of the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin. Kirchner was at the peak of his artistic development in 1914. In Berlin, where he had been living since 1911, he captured the speed and complexity of city life with unsurpassed intensity in his famous street scenes. In May and July 1914, he spent a second short period in Cologne to carry out a commissioned work. Two years earlier, together with Erich Heckel, he had already created a mural for the International Art Exhibition of the Sonderbund in the exhibition hall at Aachener Tor. Now the commission from the Cologne tobacco manufacturer and important patron of the arts Josef Feinhals brought him back to the Rhine. On the occasion of the large Werkbund exhibition, Kirchner designed a stand for him at which Feinhals presented his historical collection of artistic tobacco products. The Cologne city panorama evidently made a deep impression on the artist, who produced three etchings and a lithograph from his brief visits. The lithograph "Rhine Bridge in Cologne" is the most impressive of these prints. In an extraordinary composition, the artist captured the view from the Hohenzollern Bridge towards the cathedral, whereby the perspective is strongly subjective. Similar to his Berlin street scenes, the everyday scene is condensed into a composition of great dynamism and formal stringency. From a clearly elevated viewer's standpoint in the middle of the bridge, the footpath leads into the depths of the picture with a force worthy of a condiment, passers-by hurry along this straight line. The path is flanked on both sides by the mighty arches of the bridge, which meet at the vanishing point. Directly behind them rise the characteristic cathedral towers, which are largely concealed by the struts and arches of the bridge, which was only opened in 1911. Modern city life and technology dominate over centuries of history and tradition, with industrially manufactured steel components overshadowing the imposing medieval structure. The steam locomotive on the railroad track next to the pedestrian path also underlines the dominance of modern life, which Kirchner experienced intensively. The artist was so fascinated by the composition he found here that he developed it further in the same year in the painting "Rheinbrücke" (Gordon 387; Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, see illustration). The painting version captivates with its intensity of color, but it "by no means achieves the suggestive power and expressiveness of the lithograph" (Magdalena M. Moeller, in: Meisterwerke der Druckgraphik, op.cit., p. 168). Our sheet shows the first version of the lithograph and is the only known example of this state of printing. It still manifests the freshness and spontaneity of the underlying sketches. In a second state (Gercken 689 II; Dube 256 II, see illus.) Kirchner reworked the motif, the struts and arches of the bridge are painted in black and give the structure a menacing dominance.