Description
Locked in a dangerous embrace, beefy wrestlers writhe on a brightly colored mat. Famous for his scenes of urban life, Kirchner uses loose brushstrokes to capture the blur of bodies in motion. Imagine watching this intense match, surrounded by screaming spectators.
Provenance
Artist’s estate, sold to Grosshennig Gallery (1938-1957); (Galerie Grosshennig, Düsseldorf, Germany, sold to Otto Gerson Gallery) (1957); (Otto Gerson Gallery, New York, lent to Grosshennig Gallery on commission) (1957 - by 1960); (Galerie Grosshennig, Düsseldorf, Germany, returned unsold to Marlborough-Gerson Gallery) (By 1960-1963); (Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, sold to Allan Frumkin) (1963-1964); (Allan Frumkin Gallery, New York, NY, sold to E.V. Thaw) (1964-1966); (E. V. Thaw, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (1966); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1966-)
Accession Number
1966.49
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 107.5 x 121 x 7 cm (42 5/16 x 47 5/8 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 80.5 x 94 cm (31 11/16 x 37 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art and Bequest of William R. Valentiner
Tags
Painting Early Modern (1901–1950) Oil Painting Canvas German
Background & Context
Background Story
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) was a German painter known as the leading member of Die Brucke (The Bridge), the Dresden-based group that pioneered German Expressionism. Wrestlers in a Circus from 1909 depicts circus wrestlers in the bold, angular manner that Kirchner developed as the leading member of Die Brucke. The 1909 date places this in Kirchner's most productive Dresden period, when he was producing the bold, angular paintings that define German Expressionism, and the circus subject allows him to exercise his talent for depicting the dynamic, angular movements of the human body in the bold manner that is his most distinctive contribution to 20th-century painting.
Cultural Impact
Wrestlers in a Circus is important in the history of German Expressionism because it demonstrates the bold, angular manner that Kirchner developed as the leading member of Die Brucke. The circus subject—dynamic, angular movements of the human body in the bold, angular manner that defines Die Brucke Expressionism—shows Kirchner at his most dynamic, and the 1909 painting represents German Expressionism at its most energetic and accomplished.
Why It Matters
Wrestlers in a Circus is Kirchner's Die Brucke Expressionism: circus wrestlers rendered in the bold, angular manner that he developed as the leading member of the group that pioneered German Expressionism. The 1909 painting shows the dynamic, angular movements of the human body that define Die Brucke at its most energetic.
