Saturday, January 10, 2026

Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Two Heads
ca. 1910
woodcut
High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Neue Secession
(Hercules strangling Serpents)
1910
woodcut (poster)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
The Patient in the Night
ca. 1920-22
oil on canvas
Sprengel Museum, Hannover

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Two Women in the Street
1914
oil on canvas
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
The Sisters
1913
oil on canvas
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Bavarian Forest Lake
1911
oil on canvas
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Cover for Umbra Vitae by Georg Heym
1924
color woodblock print on yellow linen
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Portrait of Dr Carl Hagemann
ca. 1928-33
oil on canvas
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Street Scene by Night
1925
oil on canvas
Kunsthalle Bremen

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Bathing Woman
ca. 1910-11
oil on canvas
Kunsthalle zu Kiel

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Erich Heckel and Model in the Studio
1905
oil on canvas
Brücke Museum, Berlin

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Brown Figures in a Cafe
1928-29
oil on canvas
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Four Wooden Sculptures
1912
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Interior with Two Women
1926
oil on canvas
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Forest in Winter
ca. 1925-26
oil on canvas
Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
In a Cafe
1904
color woodblock print
Brücke Museum, Berlin

Pelasgus:  Truly this business is hard to wrestle with, in all sorts of ways; a host of trouble is coming at me like a river in spate.  This is a bottomless sea of ruin, certainly not easily crossable, that I have stepped into, and nowhere is there a safe haven from trouble.  If I do not perform this thing for you, you have threatened me with a pollution terrible beyond compare;* if, on the other hand, I take my stand in front of the sons of Aegyptus, it will indeed be a bitter loss that the ground should be stained with men's blood on account of women.  All the same, there is no alternative but to respect the wrath of Zeus god of suppliants; the fear of him is the greatest fear a mortal can have.  You now, aged father of these maidens, approach the altar, quickly take these boughs in your arms, and place them on the other altars of our native gods, so that all the citizens may see the evidence of this supplication and no hostile words be thrown out against me – for the people are very inclined to criticize their rulers.  Perhaps those who see them will take pity and detest the outrageous behaviour of that band of males, and the people be more friendly towards you.  Everyone has kindly feelings for the underdog. 

[Danaus with the boughs from the altar in his arms, descends from the mound]

Danaus:  We value this highly, to have secured a respectful, beneficent sponsor.  But please send with me some attendants and guides from among the natives, so that we can find the altars in front of the temples of the gods who dwell in the city and their abodes, and so that we may be safe as we walk through the city.  Our form and appearance are not at all similar: the Nile does not breed a race resembling that of the Inachus.** Take care, in case confidence gives birth to fear.  People have been known to kill a friend through ignorance. 

Pelasgus:  Go men, what the stranger says is right.  Take him to the city altars and the abodes of the gods.  And you must not be talkative with those you meet while escorting this man who took sanctuary at the gods' hearth.*** 

– Aeschylus, from Suppliants (ca. 470-460 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)

*the pollution is that which the Danaids' dead bodes would bring upon the shrine

**principal river of Argos

***plainly implying that he wants the escorts to say nothing about Danaus except that he is a suppliant, which will be obvious anyway from the boughs – Pelasgus does not wish any further information about the affair to become public until he presents it himself at the forthcoming assembly meeting