Badeszene unter überhängenden Baumzweigen, Fehmarn. 1913.
Woodcut.
Gercken 617 IV (of IV). Dube H 226. Schiefler H 206. With the etstate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and the hand-wriiten egistration number "H 206 IV D" on the reverse. One of just three known copies from the fourth and final printing state and one of a total of 18 known copies. On wove paper. 43.4 x 40.5 cm (17 x 15.9 in). Sheet: 65,7 x 45,3 cm (25,9 x 17,8 in).
[CH].
• Document of the "Brücke" artist's aspired unity of man and nature, which they also expressed in their lifestyle, as well as their stays at the Moritzburg Ponds and the North and Baltic Sea.
• The very same years Kirchner also used the motif in the painting "Auf Fehmarn" auf (reverse side of "Kaffeetafel", 1908, Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster).
• One of only three copies from the final printing state.
• It has been more than 15 years that a copy of this woodcut was last offered on the international auction market (source: artprice).
• The two other known copies from this state are museum-owned: Brücke-Museum, Berlin, and the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin/Ohio.
• Three other copies of this rare woodcut (different states) are also musem-owned: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kunstmuseum Bochum and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.

PROVENANCE: From the artist's estate (with the estate stamp on the reverse, Lugt 1570 b).
Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp, Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 1995-2001).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2001-2017).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 258, SHG no. 369 (with illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 331, SHG no. 748 (with illu.).
Günther Gercken. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Kritisches Werkverzeichnis der Druckgraphik, vol. 3 (1912-1916, no. 543-847); Bern 2015, cat. no. 617, p. 88 (with illu., p. 89).

"You learn the most about an artist through his print art."
E. L. Kirchner about the significance of his vast print œuvre, quoted from: Louis de Marsalle (E. L. Kirchner pseudonym), Über Kirchners Graphik, in: Genius. Zeitschrift für werdende und alte Kunst, Munich 1921, p. 190.