Article
Collection Publications: Klinger to Kollwitz Labels0
Kirchner was the most prolific printmaker of the Brücke artists, producing over 2000 works, over half of them woodcuts. Because he usually insisted on printing these himself, the editions are relatively small, and every impression has an individual character. In his physical involvement in every stage of the process, Kirchner viewed himself as resurrecting the German Renaissance tradition of the autonomous woodcut, epitomized in the work of Albrecht Dürer.
Old Farmer is one of a group of monumental portraits made by the artist over a three-year period in Switzerland, where he had moved in May 1917 to recuperate from a nervous breakdown brought on by military service and morphine addiction. After treatment in a sanatorium in Davos, he moved into a farmer's hut above the nearby village of Frauenkirch, which remained his principal residence until his death. Lacking a press until January 1919, Kirchner printed the woodcuts by hand. Using the same sharp, short, jagged strokes to define the furrowed face of the old farmer and the craggy alpine background, Kirchner merges the individual and nature into one iconic and electrifying image.
Old Farmer is one of a group of monumental portraits made by the artist over a three-year period in Switzerland, where he had moved in May 1917 to recuperate from a nervous breakdown brought on by military service and morphine addiction. After treatment in a sanatorium in Davos, he moved into a farmer's hut above the nearby village of Frauenkirch, which remained his principal residence until his death. Lacking a press until January 1919, Kirchner printed the woodcuts by hand. Using the same sharp, short, jagged strokes to define the furrowed face of the old farmer and the craggy alpine background, Kirchner merges the individual and nature into one iconic and electrifying image.
