"Alpweg after the thunderstorm" by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, limited reproduction

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, founding member of the artist group "Brücke" and important representative of Expressionism, left an extensive oeuvre of around 30,000 works, including paintings, drawings and sculptures. On June 15, 1938, he committed suicide in Switzerland after destroying his pressure sticks and many sculptures before the threat of German troops. Kirchner was born on May 6, 1880 in Aschaffenburg and has lived in Switzerland since 1918; Depressive phases and a past in the First World War significantly tightened its fears. His work mirrors the different phases of his artistic development: from the expressive paintings of the "bridge" to open -air painting to critical Berlin street scenes after the dissolution of this association in 1913. It was only in the calm Swiss years to form a more harmonious coloring and flowing forms. Despite his artistic work, the defamation of his works as "degenerate art" by the National Socialists again led to an increase in his fears, which ultimately contributed to his tragic end.