Simson (in-text plate) from mock-up of Georg Heym: Umbra Vitae (Georg Heym: Shadow of Life)
1912/1922
Medium
woodcut from a bound volume with 51 woodcuts (including cover and front and back endpapers) on wove paper
Dimensions
book: 21.7 × 14.5 × 1.3 cm (8 9/16 × 5 11/16 × 1/2 in.)
Classification
Volume
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen
Accession Number
2012.92.40.36
Art Historical Context
Step into the vivid world of German Expressionism with *Simson*, an in woodcut plate by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner from his1912/1922 mock-up of Georg Heym haunting poetry collection *Umbrae* (Shadow of Life). Kirchner, a founding member of revolutionary Die Brücke group collaborated on this bound volume of 51 wood—including covers and endpapers—to visually amplify Heym's dark, visionary verses exploring mortality, ecstasy, and urban alienation. Created amid the turbulent pre- and post-World War I era, the project reflects Expressionism's raw emotional intensity, with Kirchner's stark imagery echoin...
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...