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Self-Portrait as a Soldier

Artist/Maker (German, 1880–1938)
Date1915
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 27 3/16 × 24 15/16 in. (69 × 63.3 cm)
Frame: 32 3/4 × 29 1/8 × 3 in. (83.2 × 74 × 7.6 cm)
Credit LineCharles F. Olney Fund
Object number1950.29
Status
On view
Copyright© Allen Memorial Art MuseumMore Information
In this haunting self-portrait, the horror and mental anguish of the First World War is made vividly evident. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, one of the founders of the Die Brücke movement, a group that was the first to bring forth the style of art that would become known as German Expressionism, depicts himself in his studio, where canvases lean against the walls behind him, wearing the uniform of the 75th Artillery Regiment. His right-painting -arm is a bloody stump, his cheeks are sunken, his dark-circled eyes are empty and hollow, and a cigarette dangles listlessly from his lips. Although Kirchner did not suffer the loss of his hand during the war, it broke him emotionally. He had been inducted into the army in early 1915 and assigned to the field artillery, but due to a lung infection and depression was sent away from the front lines and released in the autumn of that year. He subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown and spent time in clinics and sanatoriums.

The figure behind the artist is ambiguous -likely female, it has masculine overtones- and it is unclear whether it is meant to suggest a live model, or a figure painted on canvas. There is a suggestion of a bent limb-elbow or knee-over Kirchner's shoulder and under the figure's right arm, and the way the figure is inscribed within the dark background-which may continue behind Kirchner-would seem to suggest it is part of a painting. It bears some resemblance to the AMAM's 1919 sculpture by Kirchner, Standing Female Nude.

This work, with its raw and garish colors, was included in the 1937 Entartete Kunst-Degenerate Art-exhibition put on by the Nazi authorities in Munich, after which it traveled to other cities in Germany in 1937-38. In Munich, the painting was exhibited in room 3, with other Kirchners, as "Soldier with Whore," under the texts "Deliberate sabotage of national defense" and "An insult to the German heroes of the Great War," while next to the painting were the (sincere) words of a German curator likening Kirchner's art to that of Dürer: "We are in the presence of the first German artist to achieve a penetrating quality that can be likened to that of Dürer, E. L. Kirchner." The use of the quote in this context was meant to mock both the curator, and the artist. Kirchner, like Dürer, was known for the power of his woodcuts, and the short strokes and angular forms in this work make reference to that medium.
Exhibition History
Der Bolschewismus
  • Bibliotheksbau des deutschen Museums, Munich (November 7, 1936 - January 31, 1937 )
Entartete Kunst
  • Haus der Kunst, Munich (January 8, 1937 - January 31, 1937 )
In the Flat and Round
  • Modern Art Association, Cincinnati, OH (February 29, 1952 - March 25, 1952 )
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
  • Curt Valentin Galleries, New York (April 16, 1952 - May 10, 1952 )
Paintings and Drawings from Five Centuries: Collection Allen Memorial Art Museum
  • M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York (February 3, 1954 - February 21, 1954 )
War and Aftermath
  • Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (March 4, 1957 - April 6, 1957 )
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German Expressionist
  • North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (January 10, 1958 - February 9, 1958 )
What is Modern Art?
  • The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (March 6, 1960 - March 27, 1960 )
The Logic of Modern Art
  • The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (January 19, 1961 - February 26, 1961 )
An American University Collection: Works of Art from the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio
  • Kenwood House, London (May 3, 1962 - October 30, 1962 )
Treasures from the Allen Memorial Art Museum
  • Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN (July 21, 1966 - September 11, 1966 )
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: A Retrospective Exhibition
  • Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (November 23, 1968 - January 5, 1969 )
  • Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA (January 16, 1969 - February 23, 1969 )
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (March 20, 1969 - April 27, 1969 )
German and Austrian Expressionism, Art in a Turbulent Era
  • Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (March 10, 1978 - April 30, 1978 )
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1880-1938
  • Nationalgalerie / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany (November 29, 1979 - January 20, 1980 )
War and Anti-War Images from Four Centuries
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 21, 1982 - October 24, 1982 )
German Art in the Twentieth Century: Painting and Sculpture 1905-1985
  • Royal Academy of Arts, London (October 11, 1985 - December 22, 1985 )
  • Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany (February 8, 1986 - April 27, 1986 )
From Turner to Picasso: Masterworks from the Collection
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (May 27, 1988 - September 18, 1988 )
Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (February 17, 1991 - May 12, 1991 )
  • The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (June 22, 1991 - September 8, 1991 )
  • Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (October 9, 1991 - January 12, 1992 )
Focus on the Permanent Exhibition: Audrey Flack
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (November 20, 1993 - March 20, 1994 )
Images of War: Ritual and Reality
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 15, 1995 - October 22, 1995 )
Short-term Loan to Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 3, 1998 - August 17, 1998 )
Utopia and Alienation: German Art and Expressionism, 1900-1935
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 17, 1999 - December 19, 1999 )
Collecting the Vanguard: Art from 1900 to 1970
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 17, 2001 - June 2, 2002 )
Figure to Non-Figurative: The Evolution of Modern Art in Europe and North America, 1830-1950
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 23, 2002 - June 9, 2003 )
Kirchner: Expressionism and the City, Dresden and Berlin 1905-1918
  • National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (March 2, 2003 - June 1, 2003 )
  • Royal Academy of Arts, London (June 28, 2003 - September 21, 2003 )
1914! The Avant-garde and the War
  • Casa de Alhajas Fundación Caja Madrid (October 10, 2008 - January 11, 2009 )
"To Make Things Visible": Art in the Shadow of World War I
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (February 3, 2009 - June 7, 2009 )
Side by Side: Oberlin's Masterworks
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (March 16, 2010 - August 29, 2010 )
  • The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (September 11, 2010 - January 16, 2011 )
1914! The Avant-Gardes at War
  • Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (November 8, 2013 - February 23, 2014 )
The Great War in Portraits
  • National Portrait Gallery, London (February 27, 2014 - June 15, 2014 )
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
  • Neue Galerie, New York (October 3, 2019 - January 13, 2020 )
Beyond the Barricade
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (July 16, 2022 - December 23, 2022 )
Like a Good Armchair: Getting Uncomfortable with Modern and Contemporary Art
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 17, 2023 - July 16, 2023 )
Refiguring Modernism: A Fractured and Disorienting World
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (July 5, 2023 - May 31, 2024 )
Collections
  • Modern & Contemporary
  • On View