Winter Landscape in Moonlight

1919

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner German, 1880 - 1938

On View

Modern, Level 2, North Wing

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

“Winter Landscape in Moonlight” depicts Tinzenhorn mountain in the Swiss Alps with vibrant intensity. This vista had special meaning for Kirchner, who had first gone to the Alps to recover from a nervous breakdown several years earlier. Kirchner wanted to paint his experiences with nature, as they stimulated his return to spiritual and physical health. An insomniac, he became familiar with the variations in the landscape at particular times of night and day. “Winter Landscape in Moonlight” suggests the unusual spectrum of color produced by a bright moon over slopes blanketed with snow: brisk strokes of blue, magenta, deep orange, and purple animate the pre-dawn landscape, accentuating the sharp angularity of the peaks.

Title Winter Landscape in Moonlight

Artwork Date 1919

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. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 47 1/2 × 47 1/2 inches (120.7 × 120.7 cm) Framed: 50 1/2 × 50 × 2 5/8 inches (128.3 × 127 × 6.7 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Modern Art to 1970

Credit Gift of Curt Valentin in memory of the artist on the occasion of Dr. William R. Valentiner's 60th birthday

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. 40.58

Markings

Signed Signed, lower right: E. L. Kirchner

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

1923-August 7, 1937, Kaiser-Friedrich Museum (Magdeburg, Germany)

August 7, 1937-August 12, 1939, confiscated by the German Reich (Deutsches Reich)/The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda), Berlin, Germany as “degenerate art ["Entartete Kunst," no. 16114]

August 12, 1939, purchased by (Buch- und Kunsthandlung Karl Buchholz, Berlin, Germany)

by 1940, transferred to (Curt Valentin, Buchholz Gallery, New York, New York, USA)

1940-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

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

Exh. cat., Golden Gate International Exposition. San Francisco, 1940, pp. 84, 90, no. 665 (ill.).

Themes and Variations in Painting. Exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore, 1948, pp. 47, 68, no. 110.

E.L. Kirchner, German Expressionst. Exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art. Raleigh, 1958, p. 87, no. 26 (ill.).

Grohmann, E. L. Kirchner. Stuttgart, 1958, p. 73.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Exh. cat., Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen. Dusseldorf, 1960, no. 68.

Gordon, D.E. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Exh. cat., Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Cambridge, 1968, p. 347, no. 558 (pl. 19).

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Exh. cat., Seattle Art Museum. Seattle, 1968, p. 81, no. 49 (pl. 27).

European Expressionism. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. Paris, 1970, no. 101.

DIA Illustrated Handbook. Detroit, 1971, p. 171.

Dube, Wolf-Dieter. Expressionists. New York, 1972, p. 52 (fig. 30).

Miesel, Victor. Kirchner's Wintermondlandschaft. Wurzburg, 1978, pp. 207-216 (ill.).

Uhr, H. Masterpieces of German Expressionism at the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1982, pp. 102-103 (ill.).

Dube, Wolf-Dieter. Expressionists and Expressionism. Geneva, 1983, p. 117 (ill.).

Winter. Exh. cat., Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. Hanover, New Hampshire, 1986, p. 103 (ill.).

100 Masterworkds from the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1985, pp. 218-219 (ill.).

Miesel, Victor. "Alpine Imagery and Kirchner's 'Winter Landscape in Moonlight.'" The Bulletin of the DIA 66, 4 (1991): pp. 4-17 (ill.).

Grisebach, Lucius. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1880-1938. Cologne, 1995, p. 167 (ill.).

Augustin, Birgitta. "'Like stars seen on the bottom of deep wells': Recalling a Shakyamuni in Detroit," Orientations. vol. 52, no. 1 (January/February 2021): pp. 74-76, (fig. 2) p. 76.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Winter Landscape in Moonlight, 1919, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Curt Valentin in memory of the artist on the occasion of Dr. William R. Valentiner's 60th birthday, 40.58.