Kaleidoscopic pigments harmoniously applied in thick impasto strokes characterize this painting created early in Kirchner’s career, shortly after he established the avant-garde artists’ group Die Brücke (The Bridge) in 1905. Inspired by 15th- and 16th-century artists, as well as Post-Impressionism, African and Oceanic art and woodcut prints, Die Brücke members turned away from naturalistic representation toward simplified forms and saturated colors, which they believed expressed emotional honesty. Textured and prismatic, Trees in Autumn represents a transition in Kirchner’s style, building on the animated brushwork techniques and sense of emotional vivacity he admired in the work of Van Gogh, but with an application of paint that looks forward to his concentrated, contrasting coloration.
Details
- Artist Name: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880-1938)
- Title: Trees in Autumn
- Date: c. 1906
- Medium: Oil on paperboard
- Dimensions: 27-7/8 x 19-5/8 in. (70.8 x 49.8 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Gift of Mr. B. Gerald Cantor
- Accession Number: P.1966.03.3
- Copyright: © (for works by E. L. Kirchner) by Ingeborg & Dr. Wolfgang Henze-Ketterer, Wichtrach/Bern
Object Information
Estate of the artist’s wife, Erna Kirchner, until 1945;
Basle Art Museum (maintaining estate) 1945/46-1954;
Brothers of artist, Biberach, Germany, 1954-1955;
[Roman Norbert Ketterer, Lago di Lugano, Switzerland (executor of the artist’s estate), 1955-1963];
[Paul Kantor Gallery, Beverly Hills, California, 1963];
B. Gerald Cantor, Beverly Hills, California, by 1964, gift 1966 to;
Pasadena Art Museum, 1966-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.
[on loan]
- Dresden, Kunstsalon Emil Richter, 1908-09 to
[on loan]
- Zurich, Galerie Aktuaryus, 1927-06 to
[on loan]
- Campione d'Italia, Ketterer, 1964 to
Brücke: The Birth of Expressionism in Dresden and Berlin, 1905-1913
- Neue Galerie New York, 2009-02-26 to 2009-06-29
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
- Lugano, Museo d'Arte Moderna, 2000-03-12 to 2000-07-02
From Europe to California: Galka Scheyer and the Avant-Garde
- Norton Simon Museum, 2003-05-16 to 2003-10-13
The Blue Four and Their Contemporaries
- Norton Simon Museum, 1991-06-20 to 1992-05-24
Permanent and Loan Collection, 1973
- Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-01-30 to 1973-12-31
- Gordon, Donald E., Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, no. 19 p. 268
- Museo d'Arte Moderna della Città di Lugano, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, no. 29 p. 28-29
- Sotheby's London, German and Austrian Art, 2005, fig. 2
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