Four Figures on the Fehmarn Beach by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Four Figures on the Fehmarn Beach 1912

drawing

17_20th-century

drawing

amateur sketch

toned paper

light pencil work

pencil sketch

incomplete sketchy

landscape

personal sketchbook

german

ink drawing experimentation

pen-ink sketch

sketchbook drawing

sketchbook art

"Four Figures on the Fehmarn Beach" (1912) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is a pencil drawing depicting four nude figures on a beach. Kirchner, a prominent member of the German Expressionist movement, is known for his bold lines and expressive use of color. The elongated figures in this drawing demonstrate his unique style, characterized by angularity and a sense of emotional intensity. This piece is a study of the human form and its interaction with nature, as seen in the abstract landscape elements surrounding the figures. The work is held at the Städel Museum.

Comments

stadelmuseum over 1 year ago

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Kirchner attached a great deal of importance to ‘free drawing after the free human being in free naturalness’. During his summer stays on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn between 1912 and 1914, he captured numerous spontaneous impressions. A few succinct sweeps and strokes of the pencil here describe four male nudes romping in the dunes with the utmost lack of affectation and inhibition. They seem to embody the unity of the human being and nature to which Kirchner aspired.