Autograph letter signed ('E.L. Kirchner') to [Ludwig Goldscheider] at Phaidon Verlag, enclosing an autograph 'biographical notice', Davos, 27 January 1935

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)
Autograph letter signed ('E.L. Kirchner') to [Ludwig Goldscheider] at Phaidon Verlag, enclosing an autograph 'biographical notice', Davos, 27 January 1935
In German. The letter one page, the biographical notice four pages, 270 x 215mm. Provenance: Sotheby's, 29 November 1985, lot 329.

A brief autobiography. The letter gives Goldscheider permission to reproduce a Kirchner self-portrait in a forthcoming publication with the title Das Selbstporträt. He refers to the attached biographical notice, which traces his development from his early years, noting his early focus on the woodblock techniques of Dürer and Rembrandt and the influence of the Neo-Impressionists, notably Seurat; then the formation of the group of artists known as 'Die Brücke', initially meeting at his studio in Dresden, subsequently being joined by Nolde and Pechstein. He cites a number of important early sponsors and exhibitions, including the 1912 Sonderbund Exhibition in Cologne, and records his volunteering for military service in 1915, his admission to a sanitorium in 1916, and his move to Davos in 1917. The notice concludes with his nomination to the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts and his 1933 exhibition in Berlin.

Kirchner took his own life by gunshot on 15 June 1938, some three years after the date of this manuscript.