1916, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Taunus Road (Autostrasse im Taunus)-- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label:
Scholars have typically described the period of 1915 through 1918 as Kirchner's "crisis" years. After World War I broke out in 1914, he enlisted in a reserve field artillery unit. A year later, he suffered a mental breakdown, after which he secured a leave from the military. A friend and patron arranged for his admission to Dr. Kohnstamm's sanatorium in Königstein im Taunus, a community in the Taunus mountains north of Frankfurt. Taunus Road is one of the twenty paintings he made while at the sanatorium and depicts a nearby mountain scene.
Purchased by Ludwig and Rosy Fischer in Frankfurt, most likely not long after it was painted in 1916, Taunus Road was inherited by their son, Max Fischer, in 1926. It was among the many works the Fischer family presumed to have been lost when Max fled Germany after the Nazis came to power. It was returned in 2020 to his descendants, who wanted to reunite it with the Ludwig and Rosy Fischer Collection at VMFA.
1916, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Taunus Road (Autostrasse im Taunus)-- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label:
Scholars have typically described the period of 1915 through 1918 as Kirchner's "crisis" years. After World War I broke out in 1914, he enlisted in a reserve field artillery unit. A year later, he suffered a mental breakdown, after which he secured a leave from the military. A friend and patron arranged for his admission to Dr. Kohnstamm's sanatorium in Königstein im Taunus, a community in the Taunus mountains north of Frankfurt. Taunus Road is one of the twenty paintings he made while at the sanatorium and depicts a nearby mountain scene.
Purchased by Ludwig and Rosy Fischer in Frankfurt, most likely not long after it was painted in 1916, Taunus Road was inherited by their son, Max Fischer, in 1926. It was among the many works the Fischer family presumed to have been lost when Max fled Germany after the Nazis came to power. It was returned in 2020 to his descendants, who wanted to reunite it with the Ludwig and Rosy Fischer Collection at VMFA.