  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.
  
  
  Title
  Coastal Landscape on Fehmarn
  
  
  Artwork Date
  ca. 1913
  
  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.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  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)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Modern Art to 1970
  
  
  Credit
  City of Detroit Purchase
  
  
  
  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.
  
  
  
  21.204
  
  
  Copyright
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