Skip Navigation

Three Bathers on the Beach

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

European Art

Influenced in part by Henri Matisse, whose paintings he saw exhibited in Berlin in 1909, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner developed a radical and forceful pictorial language of flattened space, expressive figural distortion, and vivid color. This composition recalls traditional, idyllic pastorals while also reflecting his own free lifestyle at a lake near Dresden, where he relaxed and bathed nude with friends. Kirchner claimed that “the poet Walt Whitman was responsible for my outlook on life” and that Whitman’s sexually charged 1855 poem Leaves of Grass “was and still is my comfort and encouragement.” These lines from the poem seem to reflect the atmosphere of his print: “I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, I am mad for it to be in contact with me.”
MEDIUM Color lithograph in red, yellow, green, blue and violet on wove paper
  • Place Made: Germany
  • DATES 1909
    DIMENSIONS image: 20 x 23 1/2 in. (50.8 x 59.7 cm) sheet: 21 3/4 x 25 13/16 in. (55.2 x 65.6 cm) frame: 27 3/4 × 31 1/4 × 1 3/4 in. (70.5 × 79.4 × 4.4 cm)  (show scale)
    MARKINGS Stamped on verso: "Kunstverein / Jena" verso: purple stamp: "Kunstverein Jena" verso: graphite, "NY 2975" verso: purple stamp: "
    SIGNATURE Signed in graphite, lower right: "E.L. Kirchner 09"
    INSCRIPTIONS Lower left in graphite: "Handdruck"
    COLLECTIONS European Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 43.124
    CREDIT LINE By exchange
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880-1938). Three Bathers on the Beach, 1909. Color lithograph in red, yellow, green, blue and violet on wove paper, image: 20 x 23 1/2 in. (50.8 x 59.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, By exchange, 43.124 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 43.124_SL1.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 43.124_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT No known copyright restrictions
    This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.