Zwei Badende an der Fehmarnküste. 1913.
Pencil drawing.
With the estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and the handwritten registration number "B Be/Bf 72" on the reverse. On wove paper. 56.5 x 45 cm (22.2 x 17.7 in), size of sheet. [CH].


• From the sought-after creative years in Berlin.
• E. L. Kirchner spent the summer of 1913 with his partner Erna Schilling on the island of Fehmarn, his beloved retreat far away from the Berlin hustle and bustle.
• In the summer of 1913, only a few months after the artists' group had disbanded, Kirchner's former "Brücke" colleague Otto Mueller and his wife Maschka came to Fehmarn for a visit.
• The uninhibited nudity in nature was an important source of inspiration for E. L. Kirchner and his fellow "Brücke" artists and characteristic of their expressionist work.
• In the same year, Kirchner also painted " Badende am Strand, Fehmarn" (Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin).

The work is documented at the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive in Wichtrach/Bern, Switzerland.

PROVENANCE: Artist's estate (Davos 1938, Kunstmuseum Basel 1946, with the estate stamp on the reverse).
Private collection Southern Germany (acquired from the above in 1994).

LITERATURE: Ketterer Kunst, Munich, auction 197, Modern Art II, June 6, 1994, lot 144 (illu.).