1915, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes from the portfolio 9 Woodcuts -- Courtauld Gallery (London)
From the museum label:
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff were at the centre of Die Brücke (The Bridge), a group founded on the creative potential of printmaking. Described as 'the most graphic of the graphic techniques, the woodcut appealed for the physical craft entailed in carving the resistant material; for its bold forms and visible organic structures; and for the way it forced artists to reduce compositions to the essential.
Ernst Gosebruch, director of the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany, was an important early patron of Kirchner. Variations between the softer textures for skin and background, and the angular, splintered lines that converge on his eyes intensify an expression of intellectual sensitivity. This rare work likely dates from the artist's period of recuperation after a breakdown during military training.
Using a block cut from planks of fir from the forests of Lithuania where he served during the First World War, Schmidt-Rottluff's work of 1918-19 exploited a potent formula of Christian themes and the sharp, angular forms inspired by African masks which the artist had viewed in museums. The insistent dynamic and rhythmic patterning in this work dramatises the episode from the Gospel of St Luke, where St Peter and fellow fishermen are recruited as apostles of Christ.
1915, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes from the portfolio 9 Woodcuts -- Courtauld Gallery (London)
From the museum label:
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff were at the centre of Die Brücke (The Bridge), a group founded on the creative potential of printmaking. Described as 'the most graphic of the graphic techniques, the woodcut appealed for the physical craft entailed in carving the resistant material; for its bold forms and visible organic structures; and for the way it forced artists to reduce compositions to the essential.
Ernst Gosebruch, director of the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany, was an important early patron of Kirchner. Variations between the softer textures for skin and background, and the angular, splintered lines that converge on his eyes intensify an expression of intellectual sensitivity. This rare work likely dates from the artist's period of recuperation after a breakdown during military training.
Using a block cut from planks of fir from the forests of Lithuania where he served during the First World War, Schmidt-Rottluff's work of 1918-19 exploited a potent formula of Christian themes and the sharp, angular forms inspired by African masks which the artist had viewed in museums. The insistent dynamic and rhythmic patterning in this work dramatises the episode from the Gospel of St Luke, where St Peter and fellow fishermen are recruited as apostles of Christ.