Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Estate of the artist
Private Collection, Hamburg (acquired from the above; until circa 1988)
Acquired from the above by the present owners on 23rd March 1988

Hanover, Kunstverein, Deutscher Künstlerbund, 1928, no. 180, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Dusseldorf, Deutsche Kunst, 1928, no. 378, illustrated in the catalogue
Davos, Kunstgesellschaft, Graubünden in der Malerei und Gedächtnisausstellung Ernst Ludwig Kirchners, 1938, no. 125

Donald E. Gordon, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1968, no. 705, illustrated p. 368

The canvas is unlined. There are some small scattered spots of retouching, in the lower right of the composition and on the left shoulder of the man on the right, visible under ultra-violet light. Apart from some slight craquelure, this work is in good condition.
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Observing the late development of Kirchner's paintings, Donald E. Gordon noted: 'The final resolution of Kirchner's last Expressionist style occurred between 1921 and 1923. While still compatible with inwardness and subjectivity the paintings are, with some few exceptions, more simply monumental than those of the immediately preceding years. In the spring of 1921 the artist was looking as much to the future as to the past. [...] Also in April of 1921, he began drawing daily from nature again, discarding the [  ] linear attack of the past decade in favour of a more decorative approach where "one aims immediately at light and dark spots"' (Donald E. Gordon, op. cit., p. 119).

Drei Bauern, painted circa 1921-23, brilliantly exemplifies the new simplicity and monumentality of Kirchner's style, as well as its more pictorial concern for light and dark masses, conceived in clear strokes and forming organic shapes inspired by nature.