Three Bathers on the Beach
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Object Label
Influenced in part by Henri Matisse, whose paintings he saw exhibited in Berlin in 1909, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner developed a radical and forceful pictorial language of flattened space, expressive figural distortion, and vivid color. This composition recalls traditional, idyllic pastorals while also reflecting his own free lifestyle at a lake near Dresden, where he relaxed and bathed nude with friends. Kirchner claimed that “the poet Walt Whitman was responsible for my outlook on life” and that Whitman’s sexually charged 1855 poem Leaves of Grass “was and still is my comfort and encouragement.” These lines from the poem seem to reflect the atmosphere of his print: “I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, I am mad for it to be in contact with me.”
Caption
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner German, 1880–1938. Three Bathers on the Beach, 1909. Color lithograph in red, yellow, green, blue and violet on wove paper, image: 20 x 23 1/2 in. (50.8 x 59.7 cm) sheet: 21 3/4 x 25 13/16 in. (55.2 x 65.6 cm) frame: 27 3/4 × 31 1/4 × 1 3/4 in. (70.5 × 79.4 × 4.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, By exchange, 43.124. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 43.124_PS2.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Three Bathers on the Beach
Date
1909
Geography
Place made: Germany
Medium
Color lithograph in red, yellow, green, blue and violet on wove paper
Classification
Dimensions
image: 20 x 23 1/2 in. (50.8 x 59.7 cm) sheet: 21 3/4 x 25 13/16 in. (55.2 x 65.6 cm) frame: 27 3/4 × 31 1/4 × 1 3/4 in. (70.5 × 79.4 × 4.4 cm)
Signatures
Signed in graphite, lower right: "E.L. Kirchner 09"
Inscriptions
Lower left in graphite: "Handdruck"
Markings
Stamped on verso: "Kunstverein / Jena" verso: purple stamp: "Kunstverein Jena" verso: graphite, "NY 2975" verso: purple stamp: "<K" verso: u.l., graphite, "No 473, F2133 Picknick der Badenden (756) 1904-09" (reading of some of the numbers may be questionable)
Credit Line
By exchange
Accession Number
43.124
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
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