Portrait of Ester Haufler c. 1928

Curator: Welcome. We’re standing before Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s "Portrait of Ester Haufler," a drawing in pencil and chalk completed around 1928. It's currently held here at the Städel Museum. Editor: It strikes me immediately with its rawness. The visible pencil strokes, the almost unfinished quality—there's a real energy in the materiality of the piece. Curator: Kirchner was, of course, a leading figure in German Expressionism. His work often explored the psychological and social alienation of modern life in pre-war Germany. We can consider this portrait in the context of the shifting societal roles after World War I and the Weimar Republic’s cultural output. Editor: I'm looking at how he’s reduced the face to such basic shapes, focusing almost on an archetype rather than a true likeness. What can you tell us about the labor that produced these types of portrait drawings? How did the means of its production relate to the end results? Curator: This drawing belongs to a series of portraits Kirchner made during his later years, away from the hustle of Berlin. His subjects from this period reflected a departure from the previous avant-garde circles he’d kept company with in Dresden and Berlin. His retreat into Switzerland led to this renewed focus on portraiture. Editor: What about the specific use of chalk and pencil? I see this contrast and think about the deliberate choice to expose the making of this piece; Kirchner seems less focused on perfecting a traditional "likeness," and more invested in highlighting the physical act of its construction. Curator: I agree; he clearly favored that raw expressive style. While some critics dismissed his later work as a decline from the intensity of the "Brücke" period, others see it as a mature exploration of form and human connection in a more contemplative register. Editor: Contemplative but also slightly satirical, even comical. See that thin mustache perched precariously above those overdrawn lips! This caricature almost makes a joke out of the sitter. To consider the work's historical and cultural relevance, how did society view caricature or comedy as low-brow artistry compared to other fine art outputs? Curator: Exactly! We see these complex tensions mirrored in his work from that era, often laced with a bittersweet sense of nostalgia, filtered through the fractured lens of Expressionism. Editor: Ultimately, I'm left thinking about how the artist's own touch remains so powerfully present in the visible texture and raw handling of his chosen materials. Curator: Indeed. Hopefully, visitors will reflect on how a seemingly simple portrait can evoke these multilayered facets of an era of immense societal change and cultural anxiety.