View from the Window
- Date
- c.1914
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- made in
- Berlin, Berlin state, Germany, Europe
- depicts
- Berlin, Berlin State, Germany, Europe
- Classification
- Paintings
- Collection
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- Current Location
- On View, Gallery 213
- Dimensions
- 47 1/2 x 35 3/4 in. (120.7 x 90.8 cm)
framed: 56 x 44 3/8 in. (142.2 x 112.7 cm) - Credit Line
- Bequest of Morton D. May
- Rights
- Public Domain
- Object Number
- 902:1983
NOTES
In this view from his Berlin studio window, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner deftly manipulated color and scale to create a nightmarish effect. The acid-yellow buildings loom precipitously over the pink rail yard, blocking out an eerie green sky. Sheds in the foreground are artificially small and sit at a precarious angle. Kirchner aptly described his astringent palette in this period as “iridescent colors, as if seen through a nacreous mist.”
Provenance
1920 - 1937
Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany [1]
1937/08/21 -
German National Socialist (Nazi) government, confiscated as "degenerate" from the Kunsthalle Hamburg, August 21, 1937 [2]
- 1941
Galerie Ferdinand Möller, Cologne, Germany; Berlin, Germany [3]
1941 - 1945
Kurt Feldhäusser (1905-1945), Berlin, Germany, purchased from Galerie Ferdinand Möller [4]
1945 - still in 1948
Marie Luise Feldhäusser (1876-1967), Berlin, Germany; Brooklyn, NY, USA, by inheritance [5]
- 1951
E. Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY, purchased from Marie Luise Feldhäusser [6]
1951/10/04 - 1983
Morton D. May (1914-1983), St. Louis, MO, purchased from E. Weyhe Gallery [7]
1983 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, bequest of Morton D. May [8]
Notes:
[1] According to the catalogue raisonné on Kirchner by Donald Gordon, cat. no. 380, the Kunsthalle Hamburg acquired the painting in 1920 [Gordon, Donald. "Ernst Ludwig Kirchner." Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968]. The painting appears in a 1923 Kunsthalle Hamburg museum publication [Kunsthalle Hamburg, "Katalog der neueren Meister." Hamburg 1923, cat. no. 2337]. An inventory card (no, 4864) in the Kunsthalle Hamburg indicates the dates that the painting entered and left the collection [copy of inventory card, SLAM document files].
[2] The painting is listed as confiscated from the Kunsthalle Hamburg in the list of Nazi confiscations published in 1962 [Roh, Franz. "Entartete Kunst: Kunstbarbarei im Dritten Reich." Hannover: Fackelträger-Verlag, 1962, p. 189].
[3] Ferdinand Möller was one of four German art dealers who were appointed by Hitler in 1938 to the "Verwertungskommission" (disposal commission) to sell the confiscated "degenerate" art on the international art market. This painting was among those confiscated works, which ended up in the Möller gallery stock. In 1941 Möller sold the painting to the Kirchner collector Kurt Feldhäusser, Berlin [Roters, Eberhard. "Galerie Ferdinand Möller: Die Geschichte einer Galerie für Moderne Kunst in Deutschland 1917-1956." Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1984, p. 292].
[4] See note [3]. Kurt Feldhäusser acquired a great deal of his collection from Ferdinand Möller and collected works by Kirchner quite heavily. Feldhäusser died in a bombing raid in Nürnberg in January 1945. His mother, Marie Luise Feldhäusser, inherited his collection and subsequently sold much of it through E. Weyhe Gallery in New York [letter from Wolfgang Schöddert, Ferdinand-Möller-Stiftung, dated November 20, 2002, SLAM document files].
According to Andrew Robison, Marie Luise Feldhäusser moved to Brooklyn, NY in May 1948 to join her other son Erwin and his family. She brought nearly all of Kurt's collection with her, hoping to keep it intact, but eventually offered it through E. Weyhe Gallery [Robison, Andrew. "Kirchner Collector Kurt Feldhäusser" in "Festschrift für Eberhard W. Kornfeld zum 80. Geburtstag." Bern: Galerie Kornfeld, 2003].
[5] See note [4]. In May 1949, Weyhe Gallery included this painting (titled "Blick aus dem Fenster") in a list of paintings and sculpture available "from a European collection" [Robison, p. 252-54]. It is unclear whether these works were owned by Mrs. Feldhäusser or Weyhe Gallery at this time.
[6] See note [5].
[7] Bill of sale dated October 4, 1951, and correspondence from E. Weyhe [May Archives, Saint Louis Art Museum]. May also bought other works by Kirchner at this time: "Russian Dancer," "Two Female Nudes," and "Circus Rider" – all from the Feldhäusser collection. "Circus Rider" (904:1983) is also now in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum.
[8] Last Will and Testament of M. D. May dated June 11, 1982 [copy, May Archives, Saint Louis Art Museum]. Minutes of the Acquisitions and Loans Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, September 20, 1983.
Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany [1]
1937/08/21 -
German National Socialist (Nazi) government, confiscated as "degenerate" from the Kunsthalle Hamburg, August 21, 1937 [2]
- 1941
Galerie Ferdinand Möller, Cologne, Germany; Berlin, Germany [3]
1941 - 1945
Kurt Feldhäusser (1905-1945), Berlin, Germany, purchased from Galerie Ferdinand Möller [4]
1945 - still in 1948
Marie Luise Feldhäusser (1876-1967), Berlin, Germany; Brooklyn, NY, USA, by inheritance [5]
- 1951
E. Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY, purchased from Marie Luise Feldhäusser [6]
1951/10/04 - 1983
Morton D. May (1914-1983), St. Louis, MO, purchased from E. Weyhe Gallery [7]
1983 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, bequest of Morton D. May [8]
Notes:
[1] According to the catalogue raisonné on Kirchner by Donald Gordon, cat. no. 380, the Kunsthalle Hamburg acquired the painting in 1920 [Gordon, Donald. "Ernst Ludwig Kirchner." Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968]. The painting appears in a 1923 Kunsthalle Hamburg museum publication [Kunsthalle Hamburg, "Katalog der neueren Meister." Hamburg 1923, cat. no. 2337]. An inventory card (no, 4864) in the Kunsthalle Hamburg indicates the dates that the painting entered and left the collection [copy of inventory card, SLAM document files].
[2] The painting is listed as confiscated from the Kunsthalle Hamburg in the list of Nazi confiscations published in 1962 [Roh, Franz. "Entartete Kunst: Kunstbarbarei im Dritten Reich." Hannover: Fackelträger-Verlag, 1962, p. 189].
[3] Ferdinand Möller was one of four German art dealers who were appointed by Hitler in 1938 to the "Verwertungskommission" (disposal commission) to sell the confiscated "degenerate" art on the international art market. This painting was among those confiscated works, which ended up in the Möller gallery stock. In 1941 Möller sold the painting to the Kirchner collector Kurt Feldhäusser, Berlin [Roters, Eberhard. "Galerie Ferdinand Möller: Die Geschichte einer Galerie für Moderne Kunst in Deutschland 1917-1956." Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1984, p. 292].
[4] See note [3]. Kurt Feldhäusser acquired a great deal of his collection from Ferdinand Möller and collected works by Kirchner quite heavily. Feldhäusser died in a bombing raid in Nürnberg in January 1945. His mother, Marie Luise Feldhäusser, inherited his collection and subsequently sold much of it through E. Weyhe Gallery in New York [letter from Wolfgang Schöddert, Ferdinand-Möller-Stiftung, dated November 20, 2002, SLAM document files].
According to Andrew Robison, Marie Luise Feldhäusser moved to Brooklyn, NY in May 1948 to join her other son Erwin and his family. She brought nearly all of Kurt's collection with her, hoping to keep it intact, but eventually offered it through E. Weyhe Gallery [Robison, Andrew. "Kirchner Collector Kurt Feldhäusser" in "Festschrift für Eberhard W. Kornfeld zum 80. Geburtstag." Bern: Galerie Kornfeld, 2003].
[5] See note [4]. In May 1949, Weyhe Gallery included this painting (titled "Blick aus dem Fenster") in a list of paintings and sculpture available "from a European collection" [Robison, p. 252-54]. It is unclear whether these works were owned by Mrs. Feldhäusser or Weyhe Gallery at this time.
[6] See note [5].
[7] Bill of sale dated October 4, 1951, and correspondence from E. Weyhe [May Archives, Saint Louis Art Museum]. May also bought other works by Kirchner at this time: "Russian Dancer," "Two Female Nudes," and "Circus Rider" – all from the Feldhäusser collection. "Circus Rider" (904:1983) is also now in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum.
[8] Last Will and Testament of M. D. May dated June 11, 1982 [copy, May Archives, Saint Louis Art Museum]. Minutes of the Acquisitions and Loans Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, September 20, 1983.
We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.