Portrait of Ludwig Schames

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner · 1917–18

This woodcut head of the art dealer Ludwig Schames is one of Kirchner's most powerful portraits. It was commissioned in 1918 by the Frankfurt Art Association, a full year after Beckmann began exhibiting art in Schames's gallery. By this time Kirchner was living in a small hut in the Swiss Alps, recuperating from his devastating experiences in the First World War. Kirchner printed the whole edition of either 120 or 180 prints by hand, since he did not have a printing press. He created the portrait from memory, elongating Schames's severe features to fit the irregularly-shaped block of wood. The nude woman in the background is probably one of Kirchner's own wood sculptures. The force of the gouged marks and cross-hatchings, the uneven printing, and the unusual composition lend this portrait a sense of immediacy and expressivity typical of the best of Kirchner's Expressionist works.