Self-Portrait as a Soldier
Self Portrait as a Soldier. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. 1915 C.E. Oil on canvas.
- A masterpiece of psychological drama.
- The painting shows Kirchner dressed in a uniform; he is standing in his studio with an amputated, bloody arm and a nude model behind him.
- It is in this contrast between the artist’s clothing and studio space that we can read a complicated coming of age for an idealistic young artist.
- Group of artists from Germany; the Brücke artists set about creating an entirely new way of being artists; created art that looked to the past and the future at once; influence on the Die Brücke artists was so-called “primitive” art (non-western, Asian and African cultures); there was also interest in the “folk art” of Europe.
- This art was perceived to be more honest and direct.
- It is important to note that Germany remained a major colonial power in Africa through the First World War; The Brücke artists were inspired to adopt the “natural” state that they perceived in “primitivism” in their lives and their art. Paintings created outside, in nature, together with the unidealized nudes were hallmarks of the group’s work. The roughly sketched, long forms and tapered limbs of the nude model is representative of the style of this period.
- Brücke disbanded in 1913; each artist continued to develop individually and Kirchner's Self-Portrait dates from one of his most highly regarded periods of artistic production; everything in Kirchner’s world was about to be interrupted by a cataclysmic event: the First World War.
- Kirschner was declared unfit for military service due to issues with his general health, and was sent away to recover; Self-Portrait was painted during that recovery. This painting is an exploration of the artist’s personal fears.
- The severed hand in Self-Portrait As a Soldier is not a literal injury, but a metaphor. Kirchner’s is a metaphoric, self-amputation to his identity as an artist. Dark, cold colors; the glassy-eyed model looks more like a carved statue than an actual person.
- During the war, Kirchner suffered from alcoholism and drug abuse and for a time his hands and feet were partially paralyzed.
- Adolf Hitler persecuted artists who painted in a style that he considered outside of the Aryan ideal. The Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst) exhibition of 1937 was a grand spectacle that the Nazis organized to mock the modernist art they hated.
- This was a humiliating time for Kirchner. At least thirty-two of his works were exhibited in the Degenerate Art exhibition. In addition, more than 600 of his works were removed from public collections.
- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner committed suicide in 1938.
- Nightmarish quality, grim surroundings; tilted perspective