Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Famous representative of Expressionism

To Davos seeking treatment

Kirchner sought treatment in Davos in 1917. Here the most famous representative of Expressionism continued his extensive work. He painted farmers at their work and visionary landscapes, which capture a stunning impression of the Alpine landscape.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born in 1880 in Aschaffenburg, Germany. Following an architectural course in Dresden, he and his friends Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff founded the artists society "Brücke" [bridge]. In 1911, Kirchner moved to Berlin. Then came the turning point: in 1913 the friendship of the "Brücke" artists was broken and during his training as a soldier Kirchner suffered a collapse. After hospital stays in Königstein in Taunus and Kreuzlingen on Lake Constance, he sought healing in Davos in 1917. During the years that followed, he reached an initial high point in his work with his expressive pieces.

No one else has these colours

As an architect student, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was well aware of how to deal with the painting areas on his canvases. His large-scale, strongly coloured expressionist paintings were his trademark. A style that Kirchner characterised with his extremely personal, representational and objective notes. The richness of colour and the charisma of the paintings of Kirchner, his expressive paintings of figures and city scenes, the majestic mountain landscapes of Davos and the later abstract works still delight to this day.

Kirchner Museum Davos

The majority of artistic works from Kirchner are appreciated by Davos in its Kirchner Museum, founded by the art dealer Roman Norbert Ketterer. The architecture of the Kirchner Museum in Davos supports the intention of bringing people and art together. The crystalline building constitutes the architectural counterpart to the art of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

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