The Married Couple Müller (Ehepaar Müller)
Medium
woodcut on pink blotting paper
Dimensions
image: 35 x 42.5 cm (13 3/4 x 16 3/4 in.) sheet: 43.3 x 55.3 cm (17 1/16 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
2012.92.690
Art Historical Context
**The Married Couple Müller (Ehepaar Müller)** created by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in 9, captures the raw emotional intensity characteristic of German Expressionism. As a founding member of the revolutionary Die Brücke group, Kirchner used bold, distorted forms and vivid colors to convey inner turmoil rather than outward reality. This woodcut, made shortly after World War I, reflects the artist's post-war recovery in Switzerland, where he explored printmaking to express psychological depth amid personal and societal upheaval. Printed on unconventional pink blotting paper—a soft, absorbent surfac...
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...