Die Stadt der Qual (The City of Agony) (headpiece, page 22) 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
2012.92.41.18
Art Historical Context
**Die Stadt der Qual (The City of Agony, a striking woodcut headpiece on page 22 of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 1924 illustrated volume *Georg Heym: Umbra Vitae (The Shadow of Life)*, captures the raw intensity of German Expressionism. Kirchner, a founding member of Die Brücke group, created this bound edition of 50 woodcuts—including covers and endpapers—on wove paper to accompany the apocalyptic poems of Georg Heym, an Expressionist poet who died tragically young in 1912. Produced in the turbulent post-World War I era, the work reflects the movement's preoccupation with inner torment, urban alie...
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...