Alpine Huts in Fog
Medium
etching
Dimensions
image: 18.2 x 26.2 cm (7 3/16 x 10 5/16 in.) sheet: 40.2 x 55.3 cm (15 13/16 x 21 3/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen
Accession Number
2012.92.722
Art Historical Context
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a pioneering figure in German Expressionism and co-founder of the Die Br group, created *Alpine Huts in Fog* in 1920. This etching reflects his retreat to the Swiss Alps near Davos, where he sought solace after the traumas of World War I and personal struggles with mental health. The misty mountain landscape, with its humble huts shrouded in fog, captures Kirchner's fascination with the raw, elemental power of nature—a recurring theme in his later works as he distanced himself from urban alienation. Rendered in etching—a printmaking technique where acid bites into a met...
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...