Seated Girl (Fränzi Fehrmann)
On View In:
Gallery 371
Artist:   Ernst Ludwig Kirchner  
Title:   Seated Girl (Fränzi Fehrmann)  
Date:   1910 (altered 1920)  
Medium:   Oil on canvas  
Dimensions:   31 3/4 x 35 7/8 in. (80.6 x 91.1 cm) (canvas) 40 3/4 x 45 x 2 3/16 in. (103.51 x 114.3 x 5.56 cm) (outer frame)  
Credit Line:   The John R. Van Derlip Fund  
Location:   Gallery 371  

In the early decades of twentieth-century Germany, a group of avant-garde artists known as Die Brücke (The Bridge, 1905-13), emerged. Hoping their work would serve as a bridge to the art of the future, they developed a radical new style of painting called Expressionism. This composition, with its deliberate brushstrokes and forceful use of outline, articulates both Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's and Die Brücke's intent to reveal raw emotion without apologies. Lina Franziska "Franzi" Fehrmann (1900-1950), the adolescent model for Seated Girl, met Kirchner in 1910. She and her siblings regularly posed for artists in the Die Brücke group.

Artist/Creator(s)     
Name:   Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig  
Nationality:   German  
Life Dates:   German, 1880 - 1938  
 

Object Description  
  
Inscriptions:   No signature - checked 8-21-96 Stamped on verso: [KN-Dre/Ba 15] (Kirchner estate seal; "Dre" = Dresden)  
Classification:   Paintings  
Physical Description:   Seated girl. Franzi Fehrmann. German Expressionism. Figure shown nearly full length, filling almost all of the picture space, seated on vivid blue divan dressed in bright red dress with yellow trim and black polka dots on green sleeves. Small nude figure at left a frequent motif in Kirchner's art. Strong color utilized, applied in broad areas with an eye to contrast and balance. Harsh contour lines add a decorative element to the composition. These strong contour lines reveal the influence of the woodcutting technique which Kirchner also practiced to great effect. Composition is simplified and economy of line and form reveal influence of Japanese art and primitive African sculpture.  
Creation Place:   Europe, Germany, , ,  
Accession #:   52.12  
Owner:   The Minneapolis Institute of Arts