Skizzenbuch I. 1900/01.
23 sheets with Drawings, in cloth binding. Mainly watercolors, some in pencil, chalks, pastel.
Wrapper signed and dated "1900". Ten sheets dated between July 21, 1900 and April 3, 1901(sheet 3 to 9 and sheet 12, 17 and 19). Each titled (except for sheets 21 and 22), some sheets with short personal annotations. Smooth creme paper. Binding: 13.3 x 20.5 cm (5.2 x 8 in). Sheet, each: 12 x 19 cm (4,7 x 7,4 in).
Bound, 23 sheets (of which one loose) with 23 sketches and two intentionally blank pages (ll. 10 and 11) with slanted edges for holding maps or sketches. Themes: Young oaks, view from the window, inn garden in Schwanewitz, beech trunks, evening light, forester's lodge Tratzenmoor, courtyard of the neighbor's villa, forest sketch, beech, Wolgast, Köhler's house at sunset, view to the west, bushes, piece from a picture of art history (fantastic equestrian piece), "A German Trilby", The Madness, portraits of the brother Walter, park portal, from the Palace of the Orangery.
On the inside of the cover with the earliest known signature of the artist (still without "L" or "Ludwig").
Full cloth binding by the company August Seyfert, Chemnitz. [CH/AR].

• The artist's very first sketchbook (Presler Skizzenbuch 1).
• With the earliest known signature of E. L. Kirchner.
• Only very few other drawings from Kirchner's earlier years before he studied architecture in Dresden have survived.
• Like no other early work by the artist, the young E. L. Kirchner's sketchbook sheds a revealing light on his development as a draughtsman and painter.
• Kirchner used pencil, watercolor, pastel and colored chalks; the drawings show hatching, rich detail, color gradients and strong contours.
• One of the artist's last preserved sketchbooks.
• For over 20 years, no other of the few remaining sketchbooks has been offered on the international auction market (source: artprice.com).

PROVENANCE: Ulrich Kirchner (1888-1950) and Walter Kirchner (1882-1954), dthe artist's brothers, Berlin-Grünau.
Hans Wentzel Collection, Stuttgart (acquired from the above).
Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp, Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 1995-2001).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2001-2017).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Gerd Presler, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, die Skizzenbücher. "Ekstase des ersten Sehens". Monographie und Werkverzeichnis, Weingarten 1996, sketchbook. 1, p. 195 (with several illus.).
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Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 92, SHG no. 24 (illu.) and pp. 13ff.
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 279, SHG no. 634 (illu.).

"The sketchbook page has its own creative value, its own profile. It has all the characteristics of an independent genre."
Prof. Dr. Dr. Gerd Presler, Weingarten/Baden August 2012, quote from: E. L. Kirchner, Skizzenbuch 159, Galerie Koch, Hanover 2012, p. 5.

Good overall impression. The binding with traces of use and soiling, probably mostly by the artist himself, as well as slightly wavy. A small loss on the back. The flyleaves slightly curled and with small tears and losses as well as partially detached from the binding, but still stable. The first sketch leaf glued to the flyleaf (not included as a single leaf in the count). The sketch leaves slightly irregularly browned and with small creases. Remnants of detached sketch leaves present. The binding mostly stable, one leaf professionally reinforced.