Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Life, Die Brücke, Famous Paintings & Art Prints
The painter who turned colour up to full volume. The story of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner from Dresden and Die Brücke to Fränzi, the Berlin street scenes, the war, the mountains of Davos and the Nazi ‘degenerate art’ campaign, with his famous paintings, where to see them and how to hang Kirchner wall art at home. By Artwork Culture.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) was the driving force of Die Brücke (The Bridge), the Dresden artists’ group that launched German Expressionism in 1905. His art is loud, fast and nervous: acid greens and hot pinks, figures cut out in jagged strokes, the cocottes and crowds of Berlin, the dancers of the variety halls, and, in his last twenty years, the blue and violet mountains around Davos. He was also one of the great printmakers of the twentieth century, reviving the woodcut as a modern art.
This guide follows Kirchner from his architecture studies in Dresden to the founding of Die Brücke, the summers at Moritzburg and on Fehmarn, the Berlin street scenes, his breakdown in the First World War, his new life in the Swiss Alps and his death in 1938, a year after the Nazis branded his work ‘degenerate’. It also covers his famous paintings, where to see them, and how to hang Ernst Ludwig Kirchner art prints at home. Our Ernst Ludwig Kirchner collection holds 991 archival prints, from Fränzi in Front of a Carved Chair to Davos in Snow.
Who Was Ernst Ludwig Kirchner?
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a German Expressionist painter, printmaker and sculptor. With three fellow architecture students he founded Die Brücke in Dresden in 1905, and his raw colour and angular drawing became the group’s signature. He moved to Berlin in 1911, painted the city’s streets as no one had before, and after the First World War settled in the mountains above Davos, where he spent the rest of his life. Browse his work in our Ernst Ludwig Kirchner collection.
How to spot a Kirchner:
- Clashing, unmixed colour: faces in green and blue, shadows in violet, skies in pink, as in Fränzi in Front of a Carved Chair.
- Fast, jagged strokes: he drew in seconds and painted with long, hatched marks that leave the canvas showing through.
- Tall, pointed figures: the women of the Berlin streets have long necks, sharp shoulders and mask-like faces, as in Five Cocottes.
- Tilted space: pavements, floors and hillsides rise steeply, so scenes seem to slide toward you, as in Street Scene, Dresden.
- Woodcut thinking: even his paintings have the bold, flat shapes of his woodcuts, like English Step Dancers.
Early Life and Architecture in Dresden
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born on 6 May 1880 in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. His father was a chemist in the paper industry, and the family moved with his work before settling in Chemnitz, Saxony, where Ernst went to school. His parents wanted a secure career for him, so in 1901 he enrolled to study architecture at the technical university in Dresden.
Architecture gave him a training in drawing, perspective and design, but painting was his real interest. During a term in Munich in 1903–04 he took classes at the Debschitz-Schule, a progressive art school, and saw exhibitions of the French Neo-Impressionists. Back in Dresden he finished his diploma in 1905 and then turned to art full time. His friends from the university, the architecture students Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Fritz Bleyl, were thinking the same way.
Die Brücke: The Birth of German Expressionism
On 7 June 1905 the four friends founded the Künstlergruppe Brücke, the ‘Bridge’ artists’ group, named for a bridge to the future. None had formal art training. They shared studios in working-class Dresden, drew from models who moved freely around the room instead of holding academic poses, and printed their own posters and membership cards. Kirchner cut the group’s signet and, in 1906, its programme, a short woodcut manifesto that called on young people to claim freedom of life and work against the older, established powers.
New members followed: Max Pechstein in 1906, Emil Nolde for a short time, the Swiss painter Cuno Amiet, and in 1910 Otto Mueller. The group showed together across Germany, and Kirchner designed many of its posters, such as the 1910 poster for the Brücke show at the Galerie Arnold in Dresden.
Die Brücke looked to Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, the colour of the French Fauves and the carvings of Africa and the Pacific that Kirchner studied in Dresden’s ethnographic museum. From these it made a new art of strong colour, simplified forms and direct feeling: the beginning of German Expressionism. Explore the wider movement in our Expressionism art prints.
Dresden: Fränzi, Moritzburg and the Variety Halls
Kirchner’s Dresden pictures are full of the people around him. His companion Doris Große, known as Dodo, appears in Dodo Seated and in the colourful sketch Kirchner and Dodo in the Café. From about 1909 two girls from a working-class family, Fränzi Fehrmann and her sister Marcella, often posed for the Brücke painters. Kirchner’s portrait of Fränzi with her green face and red lips is one of the icons of Expressionism.
In the summers the Brücke artists took their models to the lakes at Moritzburg, outside Dresden, to paint bathers in the open air, a dream of a free, natural life. See Bathers in Moritzburg, the colour woodcut Bathers Tossing Reeds (1910) and Three Bathers at the Moritzburg Lakes. The best-known painting of these summers, Bathers at Moritzburg (1909/26), is in Tate Modern in London.
In the city, Kirchner went to the circus and the variety halls. Their dancers gave him the movement he wanted: the kicking legs of Czardas Dancers, the dark silhouettes of English Step Dancers (1911) and the pink and red stage of Dance in the Variety Theatre (1911).
Fehmarn and the Baltic Coast
In 1908, and then every summer from 1912 to 1914, Kirchner went to Fehmarn, an island in the Baltic Sea off the north German coast. He painted the red cliffs, the lighthouse at Staberhuk, sailing boats and nude bathers among the stones of the beach, often with Erna Schilling. The Fehmarn pictures are among his most relaxed and joyful.
Compare the colourful Bathing Women with Dugout Canoe at Fehmarn Beach (1914), the black-and-white woodcut Sailboats at Fehmarn (1914) and the drawing Lighthouse in the Green, Fehmarn (1913). For more seaside art, see our seascape art prints and beach art prints.
The Berlin Street Scenes
In 1911 Kirchner followed his friends to Berlin. The capital, with its traffic, cafés, nightlife and crowds, changed his art. Between 1913 and 1915 he painted a series of street scenes that are now his most famous works: tall, elegant cocottes (street-walkers) in feathered hats and fur collars, the men who follow them, all squeezed into steep, tilting streets. Painted in the last months of peace, they capture the excitement and anxiety of the modern city.
The paintings of the series are in museums: Street, Berlin (1913) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Five Women on the Street (1913) at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Potsdamer Platz (1914) at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and Berlin Street Scene (1913) at the Neue Galerie in New York. That last painting was returned by the Brücke-Museum to the heirs of its Jewish former owners in 2006 and sold at auction the same year for about $38 million.
Kirchner also cut the theme in wood and drew it in pastel. Our collection includes the woodcuts Five Cocottes (1913) and Women on Potsdamer Platz (1914), the yellow Cocotte on the Street (1915), the coloured pastel Street Scene (Berlin) (1914), Street Scene with an Omnibus and City Scene, Nollendorfplatz. For the bridges and trams of his Dresden years, see Street Scene, Dresden, Tram in Dresden and The ‘Blue Wonder’ Bridge, and for Cologne the Rhine Bridge (1914). Browse more city art in our street scene art prints.
Erna Schilling and the Berlin Studio
In 1912 Kirchner met Erna Schilling, a dancer, and her sister Gerda. Erna became his partner for the rest of his life and his most frequent model: see Portrait of Erna (c. 1913), Erna Lying on the Beach among Rocks (1912) and the etching Painter and Two Women: Self-Portrait with Erna and Gerda. Kirchner decorated their Berlin studio with his own carved furniture, painted hangings and wooden sculptures, which reappear in his paintings.
Four Wooden Sculptures (1912, Dallas Museum of Art) shows the figures he carved himself. In 1913 the other Brücke members rejected the history of the group Kirchner had written, the Chronik der Brücke, because it put him at the centre, and Die Brücke broke up that May. His portraits of friends from these years include the writer Alfred Döblin and the painter Otto Mueller (1915).
The War, Breakdown and the Self-Portraits
When the First World War began, Kirchner volunteered rather than wait to be conscripted, and in 1915 he was sent to Halle for training as a driver in the field artillery. He could not bear military life. Within months he suffered a physical and mental collapse, was released from service, and spent the next years in and out of sanatoriums, at Königstein im Taunus, in Berlin and at Ludwig Binswanger’s clinic in Kreuzlingen on Lake Constance, struggling with dependence on alcohol and sleeping drugs.
His art from these years is full of fear. In Self-Portrait as a Soldier (1915, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio) he shows himself in uniform with a bloody stump where his painting hand should be; the injury was imagined, a symbol of his fear that he could no longer work. Artillerymen (1915) shows naked recruits crowded into a barracks shower under the eye of an officer; the painting is in the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Look also for Self-Portrait with Cigarette (1914), Head of a Sick Man (Self-Portrait) (1918) and Self-Portrait with Dancing Death (1917–18).
Kirchner painted himself throughout his life: the painter with his model in Self-Portrait with Model (1910; the oil painting is in the Hamburger Kunsthalle), the confident The Painter (Self-Portrait) (1920), and the woodcuts Self-Portrait Cutting Wood (1921) and Self-Portrait (Melancholy of the Mountains) (1929). See more artists’ self-images in our self-portrait art prints.
Davos and the Swiss Alps
In January 1917 Kirchner travelled to Davos in the Swiss Alps for treatment. He returned later that year and stayed: first in a herdsman’s hut on the Stafelalp high above the valley, then from 1918 in a farmhouse called ‘In den Lärchen’ at Frauenkirch, and from 1923 in a house on the Wildboden, across the stream. The mountains, the farmers and their cows, the seasons and the light became his great late subject.
Davos in Snow (1923) is in the Kunstmuseum Basel. The mountain pictures move from the stormy colour of the first years to calmer, broader forms: compare Stafelalp with Tinzenhorn (1917), Mountain Village with Pink Cow (1919), Blue-Red Mountain Landscape (1919), Sertig Path in Summer (1924), Sertig Valley in Winter (1924) and Mountain Firs in Winter (1924).
He painted the view from his own door in Wildboden with Kirchner’s House (1925) and night scenes like Moonlit Night (1924). For more mountain art, see our mountain art prints and Swiss art prints, including Ferdinand Hodler and Giovanni Giacometti.
Kirchner the Printmaker
Printmaking was at the heart of Kirchner’s art. He made woodcuts, etchings and lithographs all his life and printed most of them himself, often in only a few impressions, with each sheet slightly different. The woodcut, an old German craft, suited him perfectly: carving forced him to simplify, and the grain of the wood and the bold black shapes gave his images their rough power.
His most admired series is the set of colour woodcuts he cut in 1915 for Adelbert von Chamisso’s tale Peter Schlemihl, the man who sells his shadow; for Kirchner it was a story about his own crisis. His woodcut portraits are just as strong: the dealer Ludwig Schames (1918), the collector Carl Hagemann, the archaeologist Botho Graef and the dancer Mary Wigman (1926).
Late Work, ‘Degenerate Art’ and Death
In the 1920s Kirchner’s reputation grew. Young Swiss painters in Basel formed the group Rot-Blau (Red-Blue) in 1925 under his influence, and he visited the city, painting Basel with the Rhine (1927–28; the painting is in the Saint Louis Art Museum). He also wrote admiring essays about his own work under the pen name Louis de Marsalle. From the late 1920s his style became flatter and more abstract, with interlocking shapes and outlines that critics have compared to Picasso.
In 1931 he was elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts. Six years later the Nazis forced him out, removed 639 of his works from German museums and showed 25 of them in the 1937 ‘Degenerate Art’ exhibition in Munich. Many were sold abroad or destroyed. Ill, depressed and afraid that Germany would invade Switzerland after it annexed Austria in March 1938, Kirchner took his own life outside his house at Frauenkirch-Wildboden on 15 June 1938. Erna lived on in Davos and took his name; he is buried in the Waldfriedhof (forest cemetery) in Davos.
Famous Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Paintings
Below are the works to know, each with the matching print in our collection.
Fränzi in Front of a Carved Chair
The green-faced portrait of the young model Fränzi, the most famous image of the Brücke years. Shop the print.
Davos in Snow
The Alpine town under pink and white snow and blue peaks. Shop the print.
Basel with the Rhine
A bright riverside promenade from his visits to the Swiss city. Shop the print.
Four Wooden Sculptures
The carved figures from his Berlin studio, painted in cool blues and warm reds. Shop the print.
Artillerymen
Naked recruits in a barracks shower, painted in 1915 after his breakdown in the army. Shop the print.
Berlin Street Scene
Tall figures in long coats crowd a Berlin pavement, a pastel from the famous street series. Shop the print.
Self-Portrait with Model
The artist in a striped robe with his model behind him, here as a coloured crayon drawing. Shop the print.
Czardas Dancers
Three dancers in red skirts kick across a variety stage. Shop the print.
What Our Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Prints Show
Our Ernst Ludwig Kirchner collection lists 991 prints of his work, one of the largest Kirchner selections you can buy as wall art. The chart groups them by subject. Portraits and figures and the Davos mountain scenes lead, followed by nudes and bathers, street and city views, and the dancers, circus riders and variety acts he loved.
For something less familiar, try the Circus Rider (1914), Klemperer at the Piano (1915), drawn at the Königstein sanatorium, the Still Life with Sunflowers and Fruit Bowl or the Lovers with a Japanese Umbrella (1908).
Where to See Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Paintings
Kirchner’s work is spread across Europe and the United States, but Davos, Berlin and New York hold the richest groups. Check each museum’s website before you travel, as works go on loan and prints and drawings are shown in rotation.
The main places to look:
Davos · Kirchner Museum
The Kirchner Museum Davos, opened in 1992 near where he lived, holds the largest collection of his work, including the late Davos paintings, sculptures, prints and his estate. His houses at Frauenkirch are private, but the landscapes he painted can be walked.
Berlin · Brücke-Museum and Neue Nationalgalerie
The Brücke-Museum is devoted to the group and its members. The Neue Nationalgalerie has Potsdamer Platz (1914).
Germany · Hamburg and Cologne
The Hamburger Kunsthalle has Self-Portrait with Model (1910/26), and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne has Five Women on the Street (1913).
Madrid, Basel, London and Stockholm
The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza has Fränzi in Front of a Carved Chair, the Kunstmuseum Basel has Davos in Snow, Tate Modern has Bathers at Moritzburg, and the Moderna Museet has Marzella (1909–10).
New York, Dallas and Saint Louis
In New York, the Neue Galerie has Berlin Street Scene, the Museum of Modern Art has Street, Dresden (1908) and Street, Berlin (1913), and the Guggenheim Museum has Artillerymen. The Dallas Museum of Art has Four Wooden Sculptures, and the Saint Louis Art Museum has a large Kirchner group, including Basel with the Rhine.
How to Decorate With Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Prints
Kirchner’s colours are loud, so give them room. A single painting like Fränzi or Davos in Snow can carry a whole wall; his black-and-white woodcuts look best in thin black frames with a white mat, and they work beautifully in groups.
- Make a statement in colour. Hang Fränzi in Front of a Carved Chair or Czardas Dancers against a white or deep green wall.
- Bring the mountains home. Davos in Snow, Winter Landscape in Moonlight and Wildboden with Kirchner’s House suit a living room, a cabin or a ski chalet.
- Build a woodcut wall. Group Five Cocottes, Sailboats at Fehmarn, Head of Ludwig Schames and Self-Portrait Cutting Wood in matching frames.
- Go urban. The Berlin street scenes, Berlin Street Scene and Cocotte on the Street, give a hallway or office a modern, city edge.
- Think about the room. His bathers and studio nudes are art-historical classics, but many people hang them in bedrooms or private spaces rather than a family hallway.
For a German Expressionist wall, mix Kirchner with Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, Otto Mueller, Christian Rohlfs, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Max Beckmann and Käthe Kollwitz, or with the Blue Rider painters Franz Marc, August Macke, Wassily Kandinsky and Alexej von Jawlensky. Read our Christian Rohlfs guide for another German Expressionist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Ernst Ludwig Kirchner?
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) was a German Expressionist painter, printmaker and sculptor and a founder of Die Brücke, the Dresden artists’ group formed in 1905. He is known for his bright, clashing colour, his Berlin street scenes, his woodcuts and his late Swiss mountain landscapes.
What is Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s most famous painting?
His best-known paintings include Fränzi in Front of a Carved Chair (1910, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid), Self-Portrait as a Soldier (1915, Allen Memorial Art Museum) and the Berlin street scenes of 1913–1915, such as Street, Berlin (MoMA), Potsdamer Platz (Neue Nationalgalerie) and Berlin Street Scene (Neue Galerie, New York).
What was Die Brücke?
Die Brücke (The Bridge) was an artists’ group founded in Dresden on 7 June 1905 by Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, later joined by Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller among others. Its bold colour, simplified forms and revival of the woodcut started German Expressionism. The group broke up in Berlin in 1913.
Why did Kirchner move to Davos?
After a breakdown during his army service in 1915 and years in sanatoriums, Kirchner went to Davos in Switzerland in 1917 for treatment. He recovered there and stayed for the rest of his life, living at Frauenkirch and, from 1923, in a house on the Wildboden.
How did Ernst Ludwig Kirchner die?
He took his own life on 15 June 1938 outside his house at Frauenkirch-Wildboden near Davos, aged 58. He was ill and depressed after the Nazis had condemned his work as ‘degenerate’ and removed 639 of his works from German museums, and he feared a German invasion of Switzerland.
Where can I see Ernst Ludwig Kirchner paintings?
The Kirchner Museum Davos has the largest collection. Other key works are in the Brücke-Museum and Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Tate Modern, and in New York at MoMA, the Neue Galerie and the Guggenheim.
Where can I buy Ernst Ludwig Kirchner art prints?
Artwork Culture sells archival wall art prints of 991 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner works, in sizes from 4×6 to 40×60 inches. Browse the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner collection or our Expressionism art prints.
Written by Artwork Culture. Image credits: all artwork images are Artwork Culture product photos of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner prints. Dates and museum holdings follow the published records of the Kirchner Museum Davos, the Brücke-Museum, the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Museum Ludwig, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Kunstmuseum Basel, Tate, the Moderna Museet, the Museum of Modern Art, the Neue Galerie, the Guggenheim, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum, and Wikidata (October 2026); store print titles and dates can differ from museum titles, and loans and rotations can move works, so confirm before you visit.