Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Skizzenbuch I
. 1900/01.
23 sheets with Drawings, in cloth binding. Mainly watercolors, some in pencil, chalks, pastel.
Wrapper signed and dated "1900". Ten sheets dated between July 21, 1900 and April 3, 1901(sheet 3 to 9 and sheet 12, 17 and 19). Each titled (except for sheets 21 and 22), some sheets with short personal annotations. Smooth creme paper. Binding: 13.3 x 20.5 cm (5.2 x 8 in). Sheet, each: 12 x 19 cm (4,7 x 7,4 in).
Bound, 23 sheets (of which one loose) with 23 sketches and two intentionally blank pages (ll. 10 and 11) with slanted edges for holding maps or sketches. Themes: Young oaks, view from the window, inn garden in Schwanewitz, beech trunks, evening light, forester"s lodge Tratzenmoor, courtyard of the neighbor"s villa, forest sketch, beech, Wolgast, Köhler"s house at sunset, view to the west, bushes, piece from a picture of art history (fantastic equestrian piece), "A German Trilby", The Madness, portraits of the brother Walter, park portal, from the Palace of the Orangery.
On the inside of the cover with the earliest known signature of the artist (still without "L" or "Ludwig").
Full cloth binding by the company August Seyfert, Chemnitz. [CH/AR].
• The artist"s very first sketchbook (Presler Skizzenbuch 1).
• With the earliest known signature of E. L. Kirchner.
• Only very few other drawings from Kirchner"s earlier years before he studied architecture in Dresden have survived.
• Like no other early work by the artist, the young E. L. Kirchner"s sketchbook sheds a revealing light on his development as a draughtsman and painter.
• Kirchner used pencil, watercolor, pastel and colored chalks; the drawings show hatching, rich detail, color gradients and strong contours.
• One of the artist"s last preserved sketchbooks.
• For over 20 years, no other of the few remaining sketchbooks has been offered on the international auction market (source: artprice.com)
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