Seated Nude Woman (Dodo)

Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig
Seated Nude Woman (Dodo)

1909/10
Pen and ink on thin tan wove paper
10.5 : 10 cm

Registered with the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern, Switzerland. Formerly collection of Robert Lehman.

Provenance:
– The Artist´s Estate, 1939
– Estate of Erna Kirchner (the artist’s wife), 1945
– Collection Lise Gujer
– Collection Theo Hill, Cologne
– Robert Lehmann Collection, New York, 1959
– Gallery St. Etienne, New York
– Private Collection

 

Kirchner was never without a sketchbook, creating up to 50 drawings a day and filling over 12.000 sheets of sketchbook pages. Sketching was an essential part of the artist’s creative process, as it allowed him to respond directly and immediately to the world around him. Kirchner referred to his sketches and drawings an “arsenal” for later pictorial creations. They led to discoveries he would incorporate into his works and served as a laboratory of ideas.

Seated Nude Woman depicts Dodo Grosse, Kirchner’s model and muse during his last year in Dresden. At this time, Kirchner created numerous sketches and prints of female nudes in pure outline. The practice began in 1905 with the quarter-hour nudes -15 minute poses that forced the Brücke artists to work quickly. Wishing to break free of academic life- drawing practices, Kirchner aimed to capture the essence of his subjects. The spontaneous, rapid, unmediated sketch was a way of capturing the spontaneity of contemporary life.

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