Alle Landschaften Haben (All Landscapes Have) (plate, page 14) from Georg Heym: Umbra Vitae (Georg Heym: The Shadow of Life)
Medium
woodcut from a bound volume with 50 woodcuts (including cover and front and back endpapers) on wove paper
Dimensions
book: 23.8 × 16.5 × 1.2 cm (9 3/8 × 6 1/2 × 1/2 in.)
Classification
Volume
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen
Accession Number
2012.92.41.12
Art Historical Context
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a German Expressionist and co-founder of the Die Brücke group, created *Alle Landschaften HabenAll Landscapes Have)* as plate 14 in his 1924 illustrated of Georg Heym's poetry *Umbra Vitae (The Shadow of Life)*. Heym, an influential Expressionist poet who tragically drowned in 1912 at age 24, explored themes of urban decay, mortality, and inner turmoil—themes that resonated deeply with Kirchner's own experiences of World War I trauma and personal struggles. This bound volume, featuring 50 stark woodcuts including cover and endpapers, transforms Heym's haunting verses int...
About the Artist
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner · 1880–1938
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born on May 6, 1880, in Aschaffenburg, Germany, to parents Ernst and Maria Kirchner, part of a family of Prussian descent that frequently relocated due to his father's career as a chemical technician. After early schooling in various towns, he studied architecture at the Königliche Technische Hochschule (Technical University) in Dresden from 1901 to 1905, taking courses i...