Coastal Landscape on Fehmarn

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner German, 1880 - 1938
On View

in

Modern, Level 2, North Wing

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About the Artwork

The perspective of this painting leads the spectator’s eye from the elevated grassy dunes to the narrow beach where sand meets the shallow waters of the receding ocean. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s jagged application of paint in the foreground imparts a sketchy quality to the image, unified by the intense color palette of greens, browns, and dusty pinks set against the swaths of blue.

The shores of the North and Baltic Seas — bordering Germany — were popular destinations for members of Die Brücke (The Bridge), an artistic association Kirchner cofounded in Dresden in 1905. Sharing the desire for a spiritual regeneration through a communion with nature, Brücke artists frequented these secluded sites to sketch and paint. In the summer of 1912, Kirchner lived with his companion Erna Schilling on Fehmarn Island on the Baltic Sea, the remote area which provided inspiration and motif for this landscape.

Kirchner framed Costal Landscape on Fehmarn in a half-rounded wooden frame, which is preserved with the work.

Coastal Landscape on Fehmarn

ca. 1913

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

1880 - 1938

German

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Oil on canvas

Unframed: 35 1/2 × 47 1/2 inches (90.2 × 120.7 cm) Framed: 38 13/16 × 50 7/16 × 2 7/16 inches (98.6 × 128.1 × 6.2 cm)

Paintings

European Modern Art to 1970

City of Detroit Purchase

21.204

Public Domain

Markings

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Provenance

Professor Edwin Redslob (Berlin, Germany).
1921-present, purchase by 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.

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Published References

Gordon, D. E. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Cambridge,1968, no. 331. [as Fehmarn Coastal Landscape, 1913]

Uhr, H. Masterpieces of German Expressionism at the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1982, p. 100 (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Coastal Landscape on Fehmarn, ca. 1913, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, City of Detroit Purchase, 21.204.

Coastal Landscape on Fehmarn
Coastal Landscape on Fehmarn