Zoom Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The Judgement of Paris / Bathers on Fehmarn

14 May – 11 September 2016

The move to Berlin in late 1911 by the Expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner resulted in a change of his painting style. The round soft drawing style from his years in Dresden was increasingly replaced by nervous angular formal elements. Hard hatchings and pointed shapes accordingly characterise the motifs of a work probably dating from 1913 that Kirchner painted on both sides. It was acquired by the Cologne collector Wilhelm Hack in 1957 at the latest. While on summer holiday on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn, Kirchner initially painted five bathers on a rock. Back in Berlin, he used the reverse for his famous version of the Judgement of Paris. The artist himself appears as Paris who must choose between three women- The models for the three women in this work that reflects the cool aggressive atmosphere of his metropolis scenes were Erna Schilling, Kirchner’s further partner, and her sister Gerda, who is portrayed twice, namely in the centre and at the left.

Curatorin: Nina Schallenberg