Sitzender Viertelstundenakt. 1905.
Graphite drawing.
Inscribed "Original-Zeichnung / Fritz Bleyl ca.1904 / Käthe Werner Bleyl" by a hand other than that of the artist on the reverse. On light paper. 34 x 44.2 cm (13.3 x 17.4 in), size of sheet. [JS].

• From the small oeuvre of the "Brücke" founding member Fritz Bleyl.
• The art-historically relevant "Viertelstundenakte" were seminal for the early development of the "Brücke".
• In the "Brücke" chronic, Kirchner mentions the importance of collective nude painting and the fascination for spontaneity and immediacy.
• Contrary to the other "Brücke" artists, only Fritz Bleyl's early sheets have survived.

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

EXHIBITION: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 1995-2001).
Fritz Bleyl und die frühen Jahre der "Brücke", Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, July 25 - October 31, 1999; Städtisches Museum, Zwickau, January 16 - March 19, 2000, p. 85, cat. no. 70 (with illu.).
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. 128, SHG no. 95 (with illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Heinz Spielmann (eds.), Brücke-Almanach 1999: Fritz Bleyl und die frühen Jahre der "Brücke", Schleswig 1999, p. 85, cat. no. 70 (with illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 370, SHG no. 819 (with illu.).

"People came together to work in Kirchner's studio, where they had the opportunity to study the nude, the basis of all visual arts, in a free, natural way. Drawing on this basis gave rise to the common feeling, the stimulus to create from life."
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, "Brücke" chronicle, quoted from: H. Gerlinger, in: Fritz Bleyl und die frühen Jahre der "Brücke", Schleswig 1999, p. 19.
"We regularly met once a week, initially at Kirchner's place. The desire to draw from the living model was realized and carried out immediately, not in the conventional academic way, but as a 'quarter-hour nude'. Soon we had found Isabella as model, a lively, beautifully built person, not disfigured by any corset fads, cheerful and skilful, responding to our artistic demands [..] We worked with real enthusiasm for an hour, probably longer, and many successful nude and movement drawings were made. [..]"

Fritz Bleyl, Memoiren, quoted from: H. Gerlinger, in: Fritz Bleyl und die frühen Jahre der "Brücke", Schleswig 1999, p. 19.

In good condition. Slightly and evenly discoloredu, with a faint horizontal line visible in the lower part. Upper and lower margin with faint isolated rubbings. Paper all in all minimally wavy.