Portrait of the Poet Guttmann

Artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880 - 1938)

Date1910

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 32 1/8 x 25 5/8 inches (81.6 x 65.09 cm)
Framed: 38 1/2 x 32 x 1 3/4 inches (97.79 x 81.28 x 4.45 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Friends of Art

Object number54-88

Signed(Verso): "E.L. Kirchner Bildnis Guthmann"

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Modern Art

Terms

DescriptionHalf-length figure of long- and grey-faced man in blue coat, orange vest; right hand on left lapel. Purple background, rose-trimmed parasol with blue fringe.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

In this portrait, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner elongated the features of his friend, the Expressionist poet Simon Guttmann, in a manner reminiscent of a stylized African mask. Wearing unusually colorful European clothing, Guttmann is seated in a chair draped with boldly patterned Indonesian batik fabric. An open Japanese umbrella frames his head. Kirchner was a member of the Dresden-based Die Brücke (The Bridge) group. Seeking to re-energize what they felt was the tired, academic art of the past, they incorporated forms and colors borrowed from the art of non-European countries.

Provenance

With the artist, Davos, Switzerland, 1910-1938 [1];

Kirchner estate, Davos and Kunstmuseum Basel, inventory no. Be/Ba 3a, 1938-at the latest September 6, 1950 [2];

Purchased from the Kirchner estate by Buchholz Gallery, New York, by September 6, 1950-1951;

With Curt Valentin Gallery, New York, 1951-1954 [3];

Purchased from the Curt Valentin Gallery by the Friends of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1954;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1954.

NOTES:

[1] According to Dr. Wolfgang Henze, Curator, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archiv, in an email to MacKenzie Mallon, Specialist, Provenance, February 13, 2016, NAMA curatorial files.

[2] The painting was transferred to the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1946, where the Kirchner estate stamp was applied to the verso. According to a shipping document in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Curt Valentin Papers, III.A.13 [7], Artists Correspondence: Kirchner, the painting was shipped by the Kunstmuseum Basel to Buchholz Gallery/Curt Valentin on September 6, 1950.

[3] Buchholz Gallery was renamed Curt Valentin Gallery in 1951.

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