Pencil drawing and ink feather
With estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570 b) and the hand-written registration number "B Dre/Be 26" on verso. On creme wove paper. 27,1 x 33,7 cm (10,6 x 13,2 in), the full sheet
Cf. the feather and India ink drawings on the same subject in: Roman Norbert Ketterer/Wolfgang Henze/Claus Zoege von Manteuffel/Hans Bolliger, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Zeichnungen und Pastelle, Stuttgart/Zurich 1979, no. 32.

This work is registered in the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Southern Germany.

The half-empty ranks of the theater and the lonely ladies with their oversized hats and the simple performance indicate that this is the depiction of an afternoon show. The motif seems to appeal to Kirchner, so that he executed two almost identical versions of the subject. The Venus placed at the left side of the stage insinuates that the venue has more to offer than just a little performing dog. The rounded flow is in characteristic of the time around 1911 when Kirchner had already been attracted by Berlin. [KD].