Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Kirchner grew up in Chemnitz and in 1901 enrolled in the Technischer Hochschule in Dresden to study architecture. He was briefly a student of Hermann Obrist at his school in Munich (1903–1904) before returning to Dresden, where in 1905 he founded the art group Die Brücke with Hecke, Schmidt-Rottluff and Bleyl. Pechstein, Nolde, Amiet and Gallen-Kallela joined them in 1906, followed by Müller in 1910.

Early on, Kirchner developed an interest in engraving: he studied the work of Dürer and Valloton, as well as the African and Pacific artefacts he discovered in the Ethnographic Museum in Dresden. He incorporated his fascination with primitive art into his work, and viewed it as a dynamic resource for the renewal of German art. Its influence continued to be felt in his work throughout his life, especially in his woodcuts and wooden sculptures, but also indirectly in his paintings.

In 1911 he moved to Berlin and discovered cubism, thanks in part to Feiniger. His shapes grew more elongated and his style more angular. Kirchner had previously made several paintings of nudes in natural settings during his Dresden period, and although at first he felt claustrophobic in the German capital, he eventually found plenty to interest him in its street scenes, circuses and cabarets.