Black Chalk drawing. With the estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and the partially illegible handwritten registration number “K Dre / Bf [...] 3” on the reverse. On creme wove paper. 36.4 x 46.1 cm. , the full sheet. [CH].
- First published during the artist's lifetime. - The casual nudity of the bathers at the Moritzburg Ponds was an important source of inspiration for E. L. Kirchner and his fellow Brücke artists: there is probably no other motif so characteristic of their expressionist works. - At the same time, Kirchner created the paintings “Bathers in Moritzburg” (1909/26, Tate London) and “Badende" (1909, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal). - The color woodcut “Mit Schilf werfende Badende” (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Gercken 375), from the same year, features a very similar figure composition.
This work is documented in the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern.
LITERATURE: Will Grohmann, Zeichnungen von Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Dresden 1925, cat. no. 24. Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 145, SHG no. 131 (illu.). Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 304, SHG no. 689 (illu.).