Die Tänzerin in der Gemme (The Dancer in the Cameo) (headpiece, page 55) 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
2012.92.41.42
Art Historical Context
**Die Tänzerin in der Gemme (The in the Cameo)** graces page 55 as a striking headpiece in Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's masterful 1924 woodcut illustrations for *Georg Heym: Umbra Vitae (The Shadow of Life)*. This bound volume, featuring 50 woodcuts—including the cover and endpapers—on fine wove paper, measures a compact 23.8 × 16.5 × 1.2 cm, making it an intimate collector's treasure now housed in the National Gallery of Art, courtesy of the gift from Ruth Cole Kainen. Kirchner, a pioneering German Expressionist and co-founder of the Die Brücke group, captured the haunting poetry of Heym's early 2...
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...