Cafe

1928

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner German, 1880 - 1938

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About the Artwork

From 1917, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner resided permanently in Switzerland, seeking the restorative powers of nature in the Swiss Alps while recovering from a nervous breakdown. During this period the artist traveled back to Germany, visiting various cities, including Berlin, whose nightlife he had portrayed in earlier paintings of street scenes. Here, painting from memory Kirchner captures a vignette of urban life observed in a café setting, conveying the vibrancy of the entertainment and social scene of the Weimar Republic (1918–33). The artist gently satirizes a pair of women engaged in a conversation inside the café and the passersby seen through the window by simplifying their features, fashionable haircuts, and bodies with large planes of color. The visual pun centers on the playful illusionistic merging of the two bodies of the hatted woman sitting in the café and the woman with the bobbed hair passing behind her.

Title Cafe

Artwork Date 1928

Artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Life Dates 1880 - 1938

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. German

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 31 1/2 × 27 1/2 inches (80 × 69.9 cm) Framed: 37 1/2 × 33 1/2 × 1 1/2 inches (95.3 × 85.1 × 3.8 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Modern Art to 1970

Credit Gift of Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Wilkinson

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 59.450

Markings

Signed Signed, lower left center: E L Kirchner Signed, verso: E L Kirchner 28 | Cafe 28

Inscriptions Inscribed, verso, at left: Nachlass E. L. Kirchner Da | Bi 12

Marks Marked, label, back of stretcher, upper left: Bucholz Gallery Marked, label, back of stretcher, upper left: Fine Art Associated

Provenance

estate of Ernst L. Kirchner.
(Buchholz Gallery, New York, New York, USA);
1951, purchased by Morton D. May (St. Louis, Missouri, USA).
Otto. M. Gerson.
December 28, 1959, purchased by Mr. and Mrs. A.D. Wilkinson;
1959-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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Published References

Gordon, D. E. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Cambridge, 1968, no. 899, p. 397 [as dated 1927-28].

Traditions: The Region/The World. Exh. cat. (?), Michigan Artrain. Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, 1981, no. 38 (ill.).

Uhr, H. Masterpieces of German Expressionism at the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with the DIA, 1982, p. 104 (ill).

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