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Mountain Landscape with Fir Trees
About the Artwork
Following his discharge from the military after a mental and physical breakdown in 1915, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner took refuge at a sanitarium near Davos, Switzerland. The alpine landscape provided a new focus for his work and became a metaphor for his spiritual regeneration. Kirchner sketched this scene with black ink swept over graphite. His viewpoint is one of self-absorption, from within the mountain range rather than from above, a subjective view with vigorous marks that imbue the scene with energy.
Exhibition history
Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964). Prints and Drawings, 1916-1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 20-July 24, 1966). The Vocabulary of Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 29-December 31, 1975). German Drawings of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art (April 1-July 13, 1980). Brush Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 3-May 10, 1981). Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). Cross Section: Graphic Art in Germany after the First World War. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 10, 1989-January 7, 1990). The German Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 27, 1993). Graphic Discontent: German Expressionism on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 14-May 27, 2018).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880–1938)
- Date
- 1918/19
- Medium
- graphite and brush and black ink
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 34.6 x 50.7 cm (13 5/8 x 19 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds
- Accession no.
- 1963.86
Provenance
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Berlin (Lugt 1570b (artist's estate stamp), verso, lower left, in violet ink; notation, by hand, within stamp, in black ink: PDa/Aa 30. [Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, Stuttgart]
More by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00011179
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