Mädchen mit Blumen (verso: Frauenporträt). Um 1917.
Ink over pencil.
Signed in lower right of the image. Inscribed “KZ 142” on the reverse. Also inscribed by a hand other than that of the artist on the reverse. On light cardboard. 50 x 38.1 cm (19.6 x 15 in), nearly the full sheet.
With the depiction of a female head on the reverse, pencil, around 1917. [CH].

• Painted on both sides: with a portrait of a woman in pencil on the reverse.
• Two dynamic portrait drawings in the typical nervous lines.
• In the year the work was made, Kirchner painted several important female portraits in oil on canvas, including those of his partner Erna Schilling and his friend Nele van de Velde.
• The portraits of fellow humans play an important role in Kirchner's entire oeuvre.

This work is documented in the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive, Wichtrach/Bern.

PROVENANCE: Estate of the artist.
Christian Laely, Davos (taken from the aforementioned estate in 1946 and assigned to the fictitious “Gervais Collection”).
Paul Kantor Gallery, Beverly Hills.
Private collection Rhineland-Palatinate.

Accurate, detailed portrait drawing in a good overall impression. The sheet minimally browned in the margins. The black ink faded with the exception of the margins. Minimal rubbing and individual traces from the making. Small creases and squeezes, predominantly in the corners. With old mounting traces on the reverse, slightly protruding onto the recto. With isolated discolorations, paper blemishes and slight rubbings on the reverse.