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Two Nudes

Date
1914
Classification
Drawings & watercolors
Current Location
Not on view
Dimensions
image: 26 in. x 19 9/16 in. (66 x 49.7 cm)
sheet (irregular): 26 in. x 19 9/16 in. (66 x 49.7 cm)
framed: 30 x 24 x 1 1/4 in. (76.2 x 61 x 3.2 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Morton D. May
Rights
Public Domain
Object Number
357:1955
NOTES
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner had a keen interest in figure drawing, though he quickly abandoned the formalities of his academic training for a more casual and open relationship to nudity. The studio became a place where Kirchner and his models lived and worked—often in the nude—and Kirchner captured these natural interactions in his drawings. In "Two Nudes," the gentle curves and protective gestures of the two women appear to merge into their surrounding environment.
1919 - 1937
National Gallery, Berlin, Germany, given by the artist [1]

1937 -
German National Socialist (Nazi) government, confiscated as "degenerate" from the National Gallery [2]

- 1953
Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin), New York, NY, USA

1953 - 1955
Morton D. May, St. Louis, MO, purchased from Buchholz Gallery [3]

1955 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Morton D. May [4]


Notes:
[1] This is one of ten works that Kirchner gave to the Nationalgalerie, Berlin in 1919 [correspondence and copied record cards from Eugen Blum, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen Zu Berlin, May 25, 1994].

[2] See note [1].

[3] Invoice dated January 13, 1953 [SLAM document files].

[4] See note [3]. Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, St. Louis, December 8, 1955.

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