The Visit - Couple and Newcomer
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 120.6 x 120.9 cm (47 1/2 x 47 5/8 in.) framed: 137.2 x 135.6 x 4.4 cm (54 x 53 3/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ruth and Jacob Kainen Collection, Gift in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art
Accession Number
1989.60.2
Art Historical Context
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a founding member of the German Expressionist group Die Brücke painted *The Visit - Couple and Newcomer* in 1922, during a transformative phase in his career. By this time, having endured the psychological toll of World War I andization, Kirchner had settled in Davos, Switzerland. His works from the 1920s shifted toward brighter palettes and more fluid forms, moving away from the jagged intensity of his prewar Dresden period, while still prioritizing emotional rawness over naturalistic depiction. Rendered in oil on canvas in a striking square format (120.6 x 120.9 cm), ...
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...