Schenkung Hermann Gerlinger

Schenkung Hermann Gerlinger
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

The Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz receive an outstanding Brücke donation from Hermann Gerlinger. The 42 works reflect the entire spectrum of Brücke Expressionism and the depth of a passionate collecting history. Special highlights include key works by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Erich Heckel, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Over the past two years, Hermann Gerlinger, one of the most important Brücke collectors, has donated a valuable collection of works by the three founders of the Brücke movement—Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Erich Heckel, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner—to the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. The donation comprises 42 works and represents the full technical range from oil paintings to watercolors, drawings, prints, and sculptures. Starting October 18, the donation will be exhibited at the Kunstsammlungen on Theaterplatz. A publication will also be released by Sandstein Verlag.

The Würzburg entrepreneur Professor Hermann Gerlinger began building his collection in the 1950s. Beginning with the melancholy of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, which he acquired as his first piece, his collection grew into one of the most prestigious and high-quality collections of Brücke artists, with over 1,000 works. The private collection reflects a passion for Brücke Expressionism, which was shaped both by a unifying spirit of the times and the individualism of the respective artists. It focuses not only on the beginnings and peak of the Brücke movement but also includes early works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Fritz Bleyl, as well as works from their later periods. Temporarily associated Brücke members such as Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, and Cuno Amiet also found their way into the collection. Since 2022, Hermann Gerlinger has been gradually dispersing his collection, donating individual pieces to selected museums, including the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz.

The Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz hold one of the largest holdings of works by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. The Karl Schmidt-Rottluff House, which opened on April 6, now offers the opportunity to permanently showcase selected aspects of his artistic work and his biographical connection to Chemnitz. Part of Hermann Gerlinger’s donation is explicitly dedicated to the newly established Karl Schmidt-Rottluff House. These works include, among others, a very early pencil drawing of A Nature Study Featuring a Bush by the Water (circa 1899), early watercolors such as Town Gate with Passersby (1901) and Brook under Trees with Footbridge (1901), as well as early prints like The Church (circa 1904) and Sleeping Boy (1905). With this part of the donation, the private collector highlights the early work of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff at his birthplace. After the initial presentation at Theaterplatz, these works will enrich the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff House in the future.

From Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Hermann Gerlinger donates to the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz the lithograph series Pictures to Sakuntala. Drama in Seven Acts by Kalidasa (1907) as well as the pencil drawing Emmy Frisch and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1908), an early testament to the close relationship between Emy and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, who married in 1919. The donation also includes important works by Erich Heckel. The woodcut series The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1907) is considered the only adaptation of a literary work in Heckel’s oeuvre. With the woodcut Madonna of Ostend (1916), a significant motif and important work by Heckel created during World War I, when he served as a medic in Belgium, enters the holdings of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. Another highlight of the donation is the painting Two Men (1919), created in the same year as the triptych Bathers, which once belonged to the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. Confiscated during the Nazi era, only the right panel (Bather II) was reacquired in 1995. The painting Two Men was also created by Heckel in the context of his stays in Osterholz; it represents a significant enrichment for the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz in relation to their own collection history.

The highlight of Hermann Gerlinger’s very generous donation is the painting You and I by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. It shows a double portrait of the painter and his wife and was created in 1919, the year of their wedding. The experience of World War I led Karl Schmidt-Rottluff to a stylistic change, which is evident in You and I; it hints at simplified forms and stronger contours that would characterize his works from 1920 onwards. Like Karl Schmidt-Rottluff himself, his wife also came from Chemnitz and is biographically connected to the city. The work shows the strong bond between Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and his wife, as well as the human closeness that always characterizes his portraits.

With the support of the circle of friends, four further works by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff from the Gerlinger collection were acquired. These include Reclining Nude (1913), Girl in Front of the Mirror (1914), Self-Portrait (1919), and Russian Landscape with Way of the Cross (1919). From October 18, the collection will be presented in the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Wing of the Kunstsammlungen on Theaterplatz.