German Expressionism and Primitive Art

Author(s): L. D. Ettlinger
Source: The Burlington Magazine , Apr., 1968, Vol. 110, No. 781 (Apr., 1968), pp. 191-
192+194-201
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 PICASSO'S CLASSICAL PERIOD (1917-25)
war suggests that he would not deny the connexion with
19, have not only the massive forms of Picasso's Harvesters, but
these great representatives of the classical ideal inalso
painting.
the hot colouring of the chalk version. This might have
In these years Picasso also shows an awarenessbeen ofregarded
other as a coincidence, but for the fact that Picasso,
in the same year
artists much nearer to his own time. In 1919 he produced a that he drew the Harvesters, made three
serit~s of drawings, some in pencil, some in coloured chalks,
drawings after a painting by Renoir, the portrait of Sisley
called La Sieste (Zervos, III, 368-71; Figs.3i, 32),andrepresen-
his wife - admittedly an early work - and also copied a
ting two harvesters resting in the heat of the day.7 photographInofthe
the aged Renoir himself, sitting in his invalid's
nineteenth century the theme had been depicted by chair.9Millet in
a famous drawing (Fig.33), copied by Van Gogh Yet while at parallel can be seen between Picasso's work
a further
St Remy (Fig.34). One of Picasso's renderings ofofthe subject
this phase and that of another artist then living, Aristide
(Fig.3I) is fairly close to the feeling of this composition,
Maillol, who for some years had used in his sculpture figures
though it lacks the slightly languid quality of Millet's
with thepeas-
same heavy classical forms that appear in the work
ants. The other (Fig.32) is conceived in a quite ofdifferent
Renoir and Picasso in these years. The reclining woman in
vein, in terms of massive, distended forms, like the Maternities,
Picasso's pastels of three nudes (Fig.4i), executed in 1921
and hot, violent colours. In the monumental clumsiness of 281), is strikingly like figures in Maillol's
(Zervos, IV, 280,
sculpture,
its forms it comes close to another drawing by Millet the closest parallel being perhaps the monument
(Fig.35),
wholly different in character from the one just to quoted,
Cezanne in thein Tuileries Gardens, designed in I912 but
which the artist avoids all trace of sentimentalitynot and givestill the 1920's (Fig.39).
completed
to his sleeping peasants a grandeur rarely to be found As isin
almost
thealways the case with Picasso, his art of the
art of earlier times, except in the late works of Bruegel early 1920's(Fig.
is related in a complex way to both past and
36).8 present. He was directly inspired by the painting and sculp-
Picasso is very unlikely to have known the drawing by Millet tur of ancient Rome; his style proves his affiliation in the
and may or may not have been familiar with Bruegel's com- tradition which runs from Masaccio through Raphael and
position through an engraving, but the coloured chalk ver- Poussin to Ingres, and at the same time his painting shows an
sion of the Harvesters seems to owe something to the work of awareness of what was being done in the very same years by
an artist then living in whom Picasso was certainly interested a great painter two generations older than himself, and a
at this time. The nudes of Renoir (Fig.4o), painted in I918- sculptor a few years his senior.
7 He took the theme up again in a drawing of 1921 (ZERVOS, IV, 235). 9 The copies of the Sisley portrait are ZERVOS, III, 428-30. The portrait
8 The grandeur of Bruegel's figures owes something to the fact that they are Renoir is ZERVOS, III, 413. Picasso's drawing of a Mother and Child of 1918
based on figures in Michelangelo's Last Judgement, just as the monumentality of (ZERVOS, III, 122) appears also to be after Renoir, but I have not been able t
Picasso's derives from classical sources. trace the original.

L. D. ETTLINGER

German Expressionism and Prim

IT is still widely held that during the early years

European of the
preoccupation with the Primitives
century a providential Zeitgeist led the Fauves, Picasso,
teenth and twentieth centuries. Gaugu
and early
the Briicke painters to ethnological museums in Paris
followed and
his example were fascinated by pri
Dresden where miraculously they found an art confirming
showed little interest in primitive art as a
their own urge towards a new and uninhibited style. on
own. Picasso, Thethe other hand, having f
historian, however, becomes suspicious whenever this deus
emotionally ex
by Negro sculpture, began about
machina is introduced in order to explain thea intellectual
phenomenon and aesthetic principles of
which has not been studied properly. The interest
of masks ofand
French
to relate Negro sculpture more
artists in primitive art is well documentedWestern
and has been
art'.2 fol-
It should also be stressed that
lowed up, but nothing comparable has been donetheir
Fauves, as far as
enthusiasm apart, learned li
German painters are concerned.
Chicago Natural History Museum Collections) [1962].
There is no need to repeat here the history of the discovery
Exotische in der europiiischen Kunst', in Der Mensch und d
of primitive art,1 but we should distinguish distinct
fiir Heinrich trends in
Litzeler [1966], p.337 ff.
2 J. GOLDING: Cubism, a History and Analysis 19o7-1914 [1
1 R. J. GOLDWATER: Primitivism in Modern Painting has [1938]. A a
given more detailed
detailed account of the discovery and use of
account in w. SCHMALENBACH: Die Kunst der Primitiven als Anregungsquelle
See also A. H. BARR:fiirPicasso,
die Fifty rears of his Art [1946],
europaische Kunst bis zgoo (Dissertation Basle) [I96I]. See alsoCubism
BLUM: P. C. C. CLARK:
and Twentieth Century Art [1960], p. Io ff. G. B
The Art of Benin (Catalogue of an Exhibition of the A. W. F. Fuller
Demoiselles and the
d'Avignon [1965], p.12 ff.

191

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 GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM AND PRIMITIVE ART

the seemingly crude ornaments

directly from African art as Guillaume Apollinaireof savage tribes than in the
pointed
products of more sophisticated
out as early as 1907.3 Gertrude Stein, who was in close touch cultures. In fact, so he claims,
with both Fauves and Cubists, individuality
has given decreases asaskills increase. In this Jones
sensitive cer-
summing
tainly based his argument
up of their different attitudes. 'At the time Negro sculpture on insufficient knowledge, but his
had been well known to curio interpretation
hunters, but not to artists
with its insistence on direct personal expltes- ...
sion nevertheless adumbrates
The effect of African art upon Matisse and Picasso was en- the later enthusiasm for all
kinds of
tirely different. Matisse through it'Primitivism'.
was affected more in his
But
imagination than in his vision. Picasso by the endmoreof the century
in his a morevision
specialized literature
than
in his imagination'.4 was also available, and two books in particular seem relevant
Picasso studied Negro sculpture as Ernst
in our context. artists formerly
Grosse's Anfdnge der Kunst (I894) hadwas a
widely readsculpture,
studied the paragons of classical work (it was translatedbut into English Germanand French)
whichcarvings
artists never subjected primitive tried to demonstrate to thatathesearching
artefacts of the so-called for-
mal analysis, and the influences which finally had because
primitive peoples belonged to art proper 'the funda-
fashioned
the Demoiselles d'Avignon (Newmental
York, aesthetic principles, suchof
Museum as rhythm,
Modern symmetry, con-
Art)
trast and harmony,
or the Nu la Draperie (Moscow, Museum of Western Art) are are to be found with Australian aborig-
not to be expected in German inals expressionist
and Eskimos just as with Athenians painting. and Florentines'.6
The
But it was Karl Woermann
Briicke painters, though enamoured of Gauguin's brand who in 1900oo published the firstof
really universal
Primitivism, were barely 'affected in history
their of art in which he devoted almost
imagination'. At
most, the artefacts of primitive sixtypeoples
pages to the section
became 'Die Kunst der Ur-, Natur-
exotic motifs und
Halkulturvdlker'.7
for still life paintings, replacing traditional He was able to give a particularly
plaster casts vivid and
bronze cupids. But this did not account
happen of this art since he had about
before travelled widely
191o. and seen
much of it in its original
Kirchner's often-repeated claim that he 'discovered' South setting,8 though it is hardly surpris-
ing that he at
Sea art in the Ethnological Museum was anDresden
evolutionist for must
whom the art be of Africans
re-
or for
examined in its proper context, South Sea
by islanders
thewas 'primitive'
early in more than
900oo's one
there
was nothing extraordinary in a visit to a collection of this
sense.

kind. During the second half ofThere the is reason to believe

nineteenth that the young
century eth-Br
were
nological museums had been familiar with
opened in this
manywidelyEuropean
read book whic
towns, and those of Dresden - would have been
founded in the -hands
in 1875 and of every-stud
Paris
the Trocadero of 1878, now thecame to Dresden
Musie in 1901,
de l'HommeHeckel followed
- were in 1
Rottluff a Moreover
among the richest and best known. year later, and the
they founded
Dresden Die B
Museum published betweenDuring 1881 these
and very years Woermann
1903 no less was direc
than
gallery
fourteen large folders with many and print-room
plates and short in Dresden. We do not
introduc-
personal
tions. There was also a growing encounter,
general but many of on
literature the example
the
subject. came from the local ethnological collection
It should be remembered that Kirchner and his friends, relevant colour plate illustrated the decorat
before becoming painters, had been students of architecture from the island of Palau which were to haunt Kirchner's
in Dresden. They would therefore have been familiar with imagination (Fig.42).
two important (though older) books which had paid tribute Kirchner explicitly stated that he 'discovered' primitive
to the particular qualities of primitive art, Gottfried Semper's art when in 1903 he saw these beams for the first time in the
Der Stil (first edition 186o-3, second edition 1878-9) and museum.9 Since Kirchner's lack of veracity where dates are
OwenJones's Grammar of Ornament (1856), of which a German in question is well known, cautious biographers have tended
translation was available. Semper had been professor at to correct this to 1904 or 1905. But in this case, it seems, he
Dresden, and his Opera House and Gallery were world- did speak the truth, and we may even be able to show what
famous landmarks of nineteenth-century architecture. His (apart from Woermann's book) sent him to the Zwinger in
two volumes on style were a much-discussed text-book, quest of primitive art.
particularly after Riegl's apparent attack in his Stilfragen Fritz Bleyl, one of the original members of the group,
wrote when recalling his student days in Dresden: 'We were
(I893). The first volume of Der Stil speaks briefly about the
nature of Polynesian art.5 But more important still, Semper looking for further education, progress and freedom from
insisted on the universal validity of certain formal principles, convention, wherever we could find them - for examples in
and referred to the arts of all times and peoples in order to the Munich periodical Die Jugend. We also read the English
prove his point. 6 E. GROSSE: Anfdnge der Kunst [18941, P.293- On the early literature see
Owen Jones opens the Grammar of Ornament with a richly SCHMALENBACH, op. cit., p.72 ff-
7 K. WOERMANN: Geschichte der Kunst aller Zeiten und V61ker, I [900oo], pp. 40-96.
illustrated chapter about 'The Ornaments of Savage Tribes' s K. WOERMANN: Die Kunstwissenschaft der Gegenwart in Selbstdarstellungen (edited
in which he argues that creating is man's first ambition and by J. Jahn) [1924], p.2 f. Lebenserinnerungen eines Achtzigjiahrigen, I [924], pp.6o-
that this urge is common to savages and civilized nations. In 99, 179-209.
9 'Dafand ich 19o3 im ethnographischen Museum zu Dresden die Balken der Palau
looking at art, he thinks, we should search for the expression insulaner, deren Figuren genau solche Formensprache zeigten wie meine eigenen. Da
of the spirit and this, in all its purity, is more easily found in richtete mich auf undich begann zu merken, dass ich auf dem richtigen Wege war.' (from
letter of Kirchner's, quoted by L. G. BUCHHEIM: Die Kiinstlergemeinschaft Briicke
3 A. H. BARR: Matisse, his Art and his Public [I95 ], p.Io2. See also GOLDWATER, [1956], p.I52.) See also Kirchner's reference in the Briicke Chronik of 1913
op. cit., p.76. BUCHHEIM, op. cit., p.50, and a letter of 1916 to Bortho Graf reprinted in
GRISEBACH: Maler des Expressionismus im Briefwechsel mit Eberhard Grisebach [ 1962],
4 GERTRUDE STEIN: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas [1963], p.63.
5 GOTTFRIED SEMPER: Der Stil, I [x878], p.223 ff. P.53-

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37. 38.

39.

37. The Missionary, by Emil Nolde. (Collection Herr B. Glauerdt,

Solingen.)

38. South Sea Islander,

(Staatliche Museum,byBerlin.)
Emil Nolde. Water-colour, 49"7 by 36-5 cm.

39. Monument to Cizanne, by Maillol. (Tuileries Gardens, Paris.)

40. Baigneuses, by Renoir. (Musde du Louvre.)

41. Three Nudes, by Picasso. Pastel. 1921.

41.

40.

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 GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM AND PRIMITIVE ART

art journal The Studio, and could unmistakable, hardly though waitthe eroticeach
for motives new
are Kirchner's. The
issue.'O0 It so happens that the Studio colour for
scheme,October
with strong Igo3
chrome-yellow,
con- red, and black,
tains an article by C. Praetorius, can be tracedon
F.S.A. back to the same
'The source.14
Art of New
Guinea'.xx It is illustrated with a number of the author's This choice of decoration must have been deliberate, and
drawings, and the text must have wetted the appetite it
ofisa all the more striking since Kirchner's paintings and
graphic works from the same time do not contain allusions to
young artist protesting against all the conventions of his age.
'There can be little doubt', Praetorius wrote, 'that the primitive art, their chief sources being the Fauves, Munch,
Papuans of former days produced their artistic work from and the woodcuts of Felix Vallotton.15 But during this period
natural desire or instinct, not acquired by the influence Gauguin
of became better known in Germany and in 1905 -
seeing the work of others.' We should compare this with abouta a year before Kirchner painted his studio - Arnold,
sentence from the Manifesto of i905 in which Kirchner and Dresden's most advanced gallery, had held an exhibition
his friends announced the foundation of their group: which 'We was seen by the Briicke artists. Kirchner's exotic studio
clearly refers to Gauguin's exotic life. It is a piece of roman-
want to achieve freedom in life and action against the estab-
ticism, a kind of Ersatz for Gauguin's life among the South
lished older forces. Everyone belongs to us who directly and
Sea islanders, though for Kirchner in Dresden painted plaster
without falsification represents those things which make him
create.'12 and colourful hessian curtains had to conjure up that innocent
Moreover, Praetorius's appreciation of the particular world in which the artist was said to be free from all restraints.
qualities of primitive art must have appealed strongly. 'The In this respect the subject-matter of the studio walls is also
work, free from restraint or rule was full of human individu- significant.16 It is typical that later, in 191o and 1913, the
ality, with a balance of line, savage beauty, and pleasant Palau motifs should reappear, like a trade-mark, on the dec-
inaccuracies, qualities often wanting in designs by civilized orative borders of subscriber cards and lists for the passive
and learned craftsmen, who, full of indistinct memories of members of the Briicke (Figs.A and B).
the work of others, unconsciously produce an unoriginal con- Something like the dicor of the Dresden studio appears -
glomerate echo, with uncertain meaning and often without characteristically only as a setting - on paintings dating from
beauty. One difference between a savage and a civilized this period. Milli asleep (Bremen, Kunsthalle; Fig.44) must
artist would appear to be that the former works with child- date from 1909 or 191o and was obviously painted with
like simplicity, his endeavour being to express some definite memories of Gauguin in mind. Moreover, the use of a dark
idea existing in his mind . . .' This may be compared with model adds to the outlandish flavour suggested by the back-
Kirchner's utterance 'The way of translating an experience ground. The Bacchanal in an Interior (Saarbriicken, Saarland
into a work of art is free; the work of art is created deliberate- Museum; Fig.45), also known under the more harmless title
ly through the will of its creator.'13 Bathers in a Room, must date from approximately the same
Clearly what first attracted Kirchner to primitive art was time, though Kirchner considerably altered this picture after
not its formal quality. Unlike Picasso he did not study the
structure of the objects he had seen, nor was his imagination 14 The studio is described by K. GABLER in the introduction to Ernst Ludwig
Kirchner (Catalogue of an Exhibition held by the Kunstverein fir die Rhein-
fired as had been the case with the Fauves. After all, he only
lande und Westfalen, Diisseldorf) [I96O], n.p. Heckel's Berlin studio seems to
claimed that the beams from Palau had confirmed him in have been decorated in a similar fashion. Eberhard Grisebach wrote in a letter

his own endeavours. As a young and untutored artist, vio-of January 1914: 'Einen zweiten Atelierbesuch machte ich bei Erich Heckel . .. Er
empfing uns in einem Dachraum, der mitfarbigem Stoff wie ein Zelt eingerichtet war. An
lently opposed to all traditions, he felt attracted to an art
den Wdnden standen aus Holz geschnitzte Plastiken, Weiber und Manner mit grossen
which, as the experts of the day told him, was the result of aK'pfen und irgendwelchem starken Ausdruck in Gebiirde und Bewegung .. . Riickkehr
spontaneous and uninhibited effort on the part of nativezur Urnatur ist seine Sehnsucht . . . ' L. GRISEBACH, op. cit., p.39.
craftsmen. In other words: he came to his admiration not 15 E. ROTERS: 'Beitrige zur Geschichte der Kiinstlergruppe "Bricke",' Jahr-
buch der Berliner Museen, in [1960], p.184 ft.
through an aesthetic experience, but through his reading.16 This attitude of mind persisted. When Kirchner after 1917 moved to Switzer-
He felt a kinship because he believed that his own impulsesland, he adorned his house in Davos with pseudo-primitive carvings without
and working methods were like those of South Sea islanders. allowing their forms to influence his style as a painter. For the Davos house see
E. GOPEL: 'Das wiederhergestellte Kirchner Haus in Davos', Das Werk, LI
If this hypothesis is correct, it would explain an apparent[1964], p.454 ff. I should like to thank Dr Florens Deuchler for bringing this
paradox in his work during the Dresden years. article to my notice.

We know very little about Kirchner's early style since he

destroyed many paintings and added false dates to others,
but even the earliest surviving examples contain nothing

a;' ?rYkr lr~

which echoes, even faintly, the South Sea objects he first saw
in I903, or for that matter any other type of primitive art.
But there is one curious exception: the wall-decorations of
the artist's Dresden studio (Fig.43). They were done some
time after I906 and here the influence of the Palau beams is

10 H. WENTZEL: Bildnisse der Briicke Kiinstler voneinander (Werkmonographien zur

Bildenden Kunst, No.63) [1961], p.24.
11 The Studio, xxx [19031, PP-5x-9. A previous article, Vol.xxv, p.95 ff. had
only published some objects without discussing the aesthetics of primitive art.
All our quotations are taken from the issue for October 903.
12 BUCHHEIM, OF. cit.
18 Das Kunstblatt, x [1926], P.322. Kirchner claims that this essay was written
in 1912. A. Briicke Membership Card. 1910.

195

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 GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM AND PRIMITIVE ART

It is said that Kirchner introduced his Briicke friends

primitive art and that in consequence they all began to
it a great deal.22 But before considering their attitude we m
ask why in this circle references to the arts of the Pac

F-I lM Ham Islands were more prevalent than to African carvings. W

may suspect that the growing popularity of Gauguin
something to do with this, but there is probably a more m
dane explanation. The members of the Bricke lived
frdu_ OkezlDvhrkbvp -I worked in Dresden until 1910 when they moved to B
with the exception of Kirchner who followed a year lat
The 1907 edition of the official guide-book to the Dresd

FrBirurE
IHnas IJnlaf II . collections says of the Ethnological Museum: 'Because of
of space almost all our objects from Asia, America and A
are not on show in order to preserve room for the most
able collection from the Pacific Islands and the South Se
*I mnunuri Iti region.'23 The guide also points out that objects from th
German Protectorates would be of particular interest to
public. The collection must have been re-arranged in
IP md ERiKrih - Pechstein:
1uidvln for in March of that year Kirchner wrote to Heckel

Fenzsu - Eiddls.en
'The Ethnological Museum has been reopened,
rather part of it, but nevertheless it is refreshing and en

ll a Hone glanene e able to see the marvellous bronzes from Benin, some exam
of Mexican Pueblo art and Negro sculptures.'24 In the li
DrWeiner 1mCkmmnu of this evidence and because of the complete absence of v
references to African art among Briicke painters prior to
move to Berlin we must doubt the veracity of Kirch
BhmtkWrI Im. Oldnbh up statement in the Bricke chronicle of 1913 that as early as
he had taken an interest both in South Sea carvings
Negro sculpture. Perhaps he had to make his claim
priority in the discovery of the latter because the manif
of Der Blaue Reiter of 1912 had illustrated not only Pacifi
also African art, and August Macke in his essay on 'Mas

N -m ~uP,~ in the same volume had compared Negro carvings w

Western art.
Among the painters of Die Briicke Max Pechstein comes
closest to Kirchner in his attitude to primitive art. In his
memoirs he speaks admiringly of the roof-beams from Palau
B. Briicke Membership List. 1913.
which filled him with longing for the distant tropical world.25
He did two things to assuage this desire. After the first world
war he decorated his Berlin flat with a frieze which is little
1925 when he also added the false date 1908.17 In the earlier
more than a free copy of these beams (Fig.46), but before
version the decorations had been closer to those of the
that, in 1914, he actually went to Palau. His vividly written
Dresden studio, there had been another figure on the right,
account of the visit is highly romantic, being inspired by an
and the handling of the nude had been reminiscent of fauve
unshaken belief in the 'noble savage', whose life he shared
technique.18 When overpainting the picture Kirchner added
and whose customs he adopted.2e Yet the pen sketches
on the extreme right a mask, copied, it seems, from an
he brought home show no trace of borrowing from native art
example of the Sepic river district of New Guinea,19 and the
and his Erinnerungen never refer to it. It obviously did not
originally rather indistinct dark shape in the centre became
interest him. For it was the influence of Gauguin which
a carved idol of a type known from Micronesia.20 Though
determined his vision of the South Sea world just as the
primitive art is now more prominent in Kirchner's vocabu-
example of Gauguin's life made him a pseudo-savage.
lary, it remains a form of decoration suggesting a bizarre
unknown before its publication in La Rivolution Surrialiste in 1925 (Picasso,
setting for a brothel, but it is not a formal element, determin-
Catalogue of the Arts Council Exhibition [196o], No.34). One may wonder,
ing shapes, colours, or structures.21 however, whether this publication prompted Kirchner's repainting.
17 See No.I6 in the Kirchner catalogue quoted above. The recent exhibitions22 The claim was first made by Kirchner in the Briicke Chronik. It is repeated and
catalogue Li Fauvisme franfais et les dibuts de I'Expressionisme allhmand (Paris- expanded by BUCHHEIM, op. cit., p.50.
Munich) [1966], p.267, No.99gg gives the wrong date 190o8 and makes no23 Fiihrer durch die K6niglichen Sammiungen zu Dresden [19071, P.79. See also p.89.
reference to the overpainting. 24 Das Urspriingliche und die Moderne, Catalogue of an exhibition arranged by the
is The original version, known only from a photograph, is reproduced in w. Berlin Academy of Arts [1964]. See under No.92.
ORoHMANN: Das Werk von Ernst Ludwig Kirchner [1926], pl.1g9. 5 'Im Friilding 9go6 hatte ich im Garten des Zwingers ein Beet von brennend roten
19 Compare, for example, R. UNTON and P. S. WINGERT: Arts of the South Seas Tulpen gesehen. Es berauschte mich ... wie mich im Museum fiir V61kerkunde Schnit-
zereien an Dachbalken und Querbalken von den Palauinseln im Stillen Ozean mit Sehnen
[1946], P.-15.-
so p. S. WINGERT: Primitive Art [1962], pl.86. erfiilt hatten, als ahnte ich schon diese ferne tropische Welt.' (M. PECHSTE~N: Erinner-
21 The Bacchanal in an Interior shares its subject with Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avig- ungen, edited by L. Reidemeister [I96o], p.22).
non, though Kirchner could hardly have known a painting which was virtually 26 Op. cit., pp.54-92.

196

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42. Roof beams from Palau, after K. Woermann: Die Kunst aller Zeiten und Volker.

43. Kirchner's studio in Dresden.

44. Milli Asleep, by E. L. Kirchner. (Kunsthalle, Bremen.) 45. Bathers in a Room, by E. L. Kirchner. (Saarland Museum, Saar

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46. Frieze in M. Pechstein's Berlin studio. 47. Still Life with Negro Mask, by L. Heck
Saarbrticken.)

48. Still Life with Negro Carvings, by K. Schmidt-Rottluff. (Kunsthalle, Bremen.) 49. Seated woman with Wood Carving, by E. L. Kirchner. (G
dorf.)

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 GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM AND PRIMITIVE ART

It has already been shown that he revered as remains

Kirchner usedof a genuine aboriginal civilization, an
quotations
from primitive art in the context Urvolkskultur.31 of some Itpaintings without
is not clear whether he was referring to the
allowing them to influence his style. Dresden or Berlin the
In fact, Museum, though
still all evidence
life with points to the
flowers and pieces of primitive art latter, became and these
a visits may have taken
favourite place as late as g911 .
subject
for Briicke painters. This, however,The paintings, in which
happened only he used these studies,
after 1910o, normally fall
that is at a time when interest in into the category arts
aboriginal still lifehad
with exotic
become figures,32 but his
general, though a German critic as early
satirical Missionaryas 1907
(I912, Solingen,had re-
Collection Herr Berthold
marked sarcastically that those wishing Glauerdt; Fig.37)
to studyis of a different
it could kind,do and in order to
so with more comfort in the Berlin museum than in Samoa.27 understand it Nolde's views on art and race must first be
Three characteristic examples will suffice to demonstrate how considered.
these objects were used by Heckel, Schmidt-Rottluff, and
Kirchner.
Heckel's Still life with Negro Mask (Saarbruicken, Saarland
Museum; Fig.47) was painted in 1912 and shows on a red
drape a flask and an East-African wooden mask owned by
the artist. It is a straightforward, almost ethnographic,
record. Schmidt-Rottluff's Still life with Negro Carvings (1913,
Bremen, Kunsthalle; Fig.48) is made up from vases with
flowers and Cameroun pipe-bowls which he must have seen
in the Berlin Vilkerkunde Museum.28 But the transformation of
the model is significant, since there is no attempt to render
its plastic values. Everything is simpler and more linear; the
strong dark outlines separating the various parts of the body
are derived from the Fauves but not from the original.
Kirchner's Seated Woman with a Carved Figure (Dtisseldorf,
Gallerie Grosshennig; Fig.49) must date from about 1912
because of the rather angular forms and acid colours. The
formal characteristics of the woodcarving are only vaguely
reminiscent of African figures, but the woman in the fore-
ground - particularly her head - is handled in a manner
which looks like a feeble imitation of Matisse's style of a few
years previously.29
It would not be enough to note that in pictures of this kind
the repertory of still life has been enriched by the addition of
exotic objects. Their choice was deliberate and, once again,
must have been inspired by the example of Gauguin who had
often incorporated Far Eastern idols into his figure and still
life compositions. Yet the device is not as revolutionary as it
may seem at first sight. In this manner Gauguin and the
Briicke painters paid their respects to the primitive civiliza-
tion they admired. Artists of a previous age had made their
confession when, for example, academicians had themselves C. SelfPortrait, by K. Schmidt-Rottluff. Woodcut.
painted at the feet of the Belvedere Apollo.
The actual influence of primitive art was always only acci-
dental with Die Briicke and did not occur before the second
In Germany Nolde is celebrated today as one of the
decade of the century when the significance of Negro art for
greatest artists of the century, once unjustly defamed by the
Cubism was becoming known in Germany. Even so, Nazis, labelled 'degenerate', but never broken in spirit by
Schmidt-Rottluff's The Pharisees of 1912 (New York, Museum their persecution. It is true that his works had to be with-
of Modern Art)30 or his Self-portrait, a woodcut of 1916 (Fig. drawn from public galleries and that he was forbidden to sell
C), presuppose familiarity with the work of Lager or Le
his pictures even privately when in 1941 he had been expelled
Fauconnier rather than close study of primitive masks.
from the official artists' association (Reichskunstkammer).33 The
Emil Nolde, who joined the Briicke for a short while in
fact, however, that he had joined the NSDAP is glossed over
190o6, has recorded in his autobiography that he often visited and, significantly, his views on art and politics are not even
the ethnographical museum in order to sketch objects which
31 E. NOLDE: Jahre der Kampfe (2nd edn) [1958], p.x79.
32Two examples are illustrated in the catalogue Das Urspriingliche und die
27 K.. SCHMIDT in Zeitschrift far bildende Kunst, xviii [1907], p.47. Moderne. No.125, Exotische Figuren, has a Hopi doll from Arizona as its central
28 A similar painting is illustrated in the catalogue of the exhibition Das Ur-feature. No.30o, Stilleben mit Siidsee Plastik, depicts a carving Nolde owned.
sprangliche und die Moderne (No.82), where the model is also identified. 33 The documents have been fully assembled by D. SCHMIDT: In letzter Stunde,
29 Kirchner, writing under the pseudonym L. DE MARSALLE in Der Cicerone, xvi Schriften zur deutschen Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, n [ 1964]. See also H. FEHR: Emil
[1925], p.695, said of his own sculptures: 'Sie sind ebensoweit von den Griechen wieJNolde, ein Buch der Freundschaft [s957], pp.153-7. Incidentally it is not correct to
von den Negern entfernt, weil sie unmittelbar geboren sind aus der Anschauung des say, as is almost invariably done, that Nolde was forbidden to paint (Malverbot).
heutigen Lebens.'
In fact, he was informed by the Reichskammer der bildenden KIanste that any
30 A. C. RITCHIE (editor): German Art of the Twentieth Century [19571, p.50. pictures he wished to exhibit or sell would have to be submitted for approval.

199

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 GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM AND PRIMITIVE ART

mentioned.34 But the historian should consider Nolde's re- doctrine. 'Purity, beauty and achievement', he claimed, 'lie
nazification rather than his de-nazification. For as he himselfwithin each individual race',38 and conversely appreciation
saw matters, the great tragedy of his life was not denigration of art, while needing instinctive sympathy with the artist, is
after 1933 - not once did he protest even mildly against the determined by recognition of his race.39
basic assumptions of Nazi Kunstpolitik - but the bitter dis- Nolde rejects all mixing of races, in art and in life. The
appointment that after Hitler's ascent to power nobody Roman Empire, he tells us, never produced art of real value
recognized that he had always adhered to an outlook which since it was an amalgam of nations. To this remarkable
embraced all the essentials of the Nazi creed, including statement he adds the following observation: 'England - in
violent anti-semitism and a mystic belief in the power ofmany respects to be compared with the Roman Empire -
blood and soil. In vain did he implore Goebbels to be rein- like all Germanic peoples once had great art, poetry, and
stated, and as late as 1942 he travelled to Vienna in order to wonderful music. But after the immigration of Spanish Jews
ask Baldur von Schirach (later at Nuremberg condemned as the country became materialistic, concerned only with
a major war criminal) to intercede on his behalf with Hitler.35power and possessions. Its interests spanned the whole world
and went in all directions, and what remains now is a nation
Nolde's political attitude is relevant here since it cannot be
separated from his views on art. In 1934 he published the almost impotent in the arts.'40
second volume of his autobiography which he called Jahre der On the other hand purity of art follows from racial purity
Kdmpfe. Both the date and the title are significant. Today one and Nolde proclaims: 'The absolute, pure, strong always
cannot read this embarrassing compound of whining self-pity pleased me, wherever I found it from the most primitive
and overbearing conceit without being aware that the author aboriginal or folk art to the most sublime portrayal of great-
was doing more than trying to ingratiate himself with Ger- est beauty. Hybrids I never liked, no matter whether
many's new masters. He obviously was anxious to tell them Chinese-Greek, Exotic-Aryan, Japanese-European or French-
that he had always served those very 'ideals' which they had German. All that is downright mongrel culture.'41 As early
now made a mainstay of their policy. For, in describing his as 1912 he considered writing a book Kunstdusserungen der
life between the years 1902 and I914, he asserts again and Naturvdlker in order to show that the artistic expression of
again that his struggle for recognition had to be waged primitive, unadulterated, and unspoilt races is the direct
against the Jews Liebermann and Cassirer who with their product of blood and soil. The book was never completed,
commercial clique dominated the art world and preferred an but its thesis can still be gathered from material which Nolde
alien Frenchified Impressionism to the truly Germanic spirit incorporated into Jahre der Kdmpfe.
of Emil Nolde.36 He reprints a coarse public attack on Lieber- He speaks of his distaste for classical Greek art and
mann which had led to his expulsion from the BerlinerSezession Raphael, but admires by contrast everything which he
in 191 o and, comparing the sophistication of the big city with believes to be the spontaneous expression of primitive man's
his own homespun simplicity, he concludes: 'Why my im- will-to-form. 'Absolute originality, intensive and often gro-
pudent rebellion against Jewry, all-powerful in the arts? tesque expression of strength and life in the simplest form -
Being a clumsy boy from the country with a belief in justice they may be the source of our pleasure.'42 Of course, these
and humanity, what could I do on this smooth slippery are also the qualities which Nolde finds in truly German art
pavement ?'37 and he exclaims: 'Praised be our strong and healthy German
It would be wrong to brush aside Nolde's anti-semitism as art', and true to his racist outlook he adds: 'We honour the
resentment, or as a sign of social and economic tension. It art of mediterranean peoples, but we love German art.'43
was not opportunism but something more sinister, since it When in 1914 he joined an official expedition to the
followed from his belief in a fundamental difference between German Protectorates in the Pacific he did not go to study
the races and from his fervent advocacy of racial purity. His something which he might have learned more comfortably
respect for primitive art was prompted by the same false in an ethnological museum, nor was he motivated by any
desire to live the life of a noble savage. Obviously, such a
34 p. SELZ, in the introduction to one of the Museum of Modern Art exhibition thing was impossible for a man of Nolde's convictions. He
catalogues has drawn attention to Nolde's political views. See Emil Nolde [1963], himself explained his motives by saying: 'I wanted to see and
p.70.
35oH. FEHR, op. cit., p.155. It is worth noting Kirchner's very different attitude. find something primordial.'44
In December 1933 he wrote to his brother: 'Beziiglich des Menschen stehe ich auch It is not clear why Nolde should have been asked to join a
heute noch auf dem Standpunkt, dass es wichtig ist ob einer ein andstandiger Kerl ist oder
scientific expedition as draughtsman, and what he brought
nicht. Danach ist er als vertvoll zu beurteilen oder nicht. Far seine Abstammung kann nie-
mand . . . Reine Rassen gibt es in Europa kaum noch . . . ' And in direct refutation back could hardly be called a 'record' of use to an anthro-
of Nazi Kunstpolitik he wrote in 1938 shortly before his death:'... und doch bin pologist (Fig.38). When drawing and painting he idealized
ich stolz darauf, dass die braunen Bilderstiirmer auch meine Werke verfolgen und vernichten. the natives and in a letter he wrote: 'The natives are magni-
Ich warde es als Schmach empfinden von ihnen geduldet zu werden.' D. SCHMIDT, op. cit.,
pp.56 and 151. ficent people as long as they are not corrupted by contact
36 EMIL NOLDE: Jahreder Kampfe (Ist edn) [I9341, PP.79f., 1 19f., I22, 134, 139- with the whites',45 and in the posthumously published ac-
50, 191 f., 199, 209-17. He told his friend Hans Fehr in 19o9 that he regarded
count of his trip (the third volume of the autobiography) he
it as a duty to work against Liebermann and his associates. See H. FEHR, Op. Cit.,
P.59. It is worth mentioning that before his death Nolde prepared a new
edition of Jahre der Kampfe, which was published in 1958. On the title page it is 38 p.-123
described as 'enlarged' (erweitert), but the above passages have either been left 39 p.122.
out or altered. He makes one significant addition. When describing his attacks 40 p.I24.
on the Sezession in the first edition he writes (p.146): 'Das ndchste war, dass ich 41 p.178.
als watiger Antisemit verschrien wurde und die Het;jagd begann.' But in the post-war 42 p. 173.
edition we read (p, 5o): Das niachste war, dass ich als witiger Antisemit verschrien 48 p. 74 f.
wurde, das ich nie gewesen bin.' 44 P-237.
37Jahre der Kiampfe (all quotations from the 1934 edition), p.149. 45 To Fehr, op. cit., p.86.

200

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 GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM AND PRIMITIVE ART

unaffected
had this to say: 'These brown men by stage
are in that them, because
of their he
development in which we Germans 'Every[he writes
strong Germanen]
artist, wherever h
were two thousand years ago. At that time
stamp of histhe Romans had
personality, the sta
added
nothing but a condescending smile forthe
the explicit assurance:
art of our ances- 'T
and pictures
tors, but today we rank their earliest I painted
and strong works ofon art
the S
- bracelets, rings, emblems and influenced
ornaments -by the manner
higher than the of
arty products of the Romans.'46carvings ... made among the islan
The painting The Missionaryaboriginals,
(Fig.37) should be seen
remained in in
sembla
this context. While in New Guinea Nolde complained
Nordic-German, that scu
like German
few local officials had any feeling for native
German culture
artists were and
less he
influe
was particularly scornful of missionaries
the French, who in hisattitude
but their view
destroyed indigenous beliefs and observe genuine
customs. concern
It hardly matters with
that this painting antedates the concept
journey appears oddly since,
to New Guinea distorte
as we have seen, Nolde's views were formed
native' much earlier.
and enjoyed a colourful
scenes
Some drawings made in the Berlin and scenery
V61kerkunde in a thoro
Museum
Kirchner,
served as raw material: the group of a Negro like the woman Nazarenes with w
her child is modelled on a Yoruba
dress carving,
in order to and the mask
capture the spir
Palau dicor of hisbut
above her is also of African origin, studio would
the allowmissionary
him to create an art free
significantly comes from an 'alien'
from Western culture
restraints, yetand was
he gained copied
his freedom through
from a Korean idol.47 This Vanparticular
Gogh, Munch, and choice
the Fauves. To indicates
Nolde the primitive
Nolde's highly personal use of his prototypes,
was a paragon forstrength
of pure race, drawing the for terri-
his art from
fying aspect of this daemon in a black
blood and soil.garb
His was a and
last andwide-rimmed
false step in a regression to
'parson's hat' must have suitedthathis intention
innocence which had hauntedofthedepicting a
imagination of artists
really sinister figure. Moreover, with
since a man
the eighteenth of Nolde's racist
century.50
conviction, we should perhaps note that this stranger from
Asia appears among Africans. 48 Jahre der Kiimpfe, p.176.
Though to Nolde works of primitive
49 p. 177. art were symbols of
50 I should like to thank the following who kindly answered queries or sup-
strength and purity, his own formal language had to remain
plied photographs: Museumsdirektor R. Bornschein, Dr K. H. Gabler, Dr
46 EMIL NOLDE: Welt und Heimat [1965], P-95. W. von Kalnein, Dr Brigitte Menzel, Dr M. Urban. The important paper by
47 Das Urspriingliche und die Moderne, No.131. For Nolde's drawing after this
DONALD E. GORDON: 'Kirchner in Dresden', Art Bulletin, XLVIII [1966], P.335 if.
figure, see No.134. appeared only after the completion of my essay.

JOHN HAYWARD

The Goldsmiths' Designs of the Bayerische Staatsbiblio

reattributed to Erasmus Hornick

THE catalogue of manuscripts in the library formed by Duke volume comprises sixty sheets of drawings of a variety of
Albrecht V of Bavaria, which was prepared in the year 1582,1articles such as vases, scent flagons, drinking cups, including
records on sheet 429 verso a volume of drawings of gold- the peculiar type without foot known in England as a stirrup
smiths' work in the following terms: Vascula antiqua von Jac. da cup, candlesticks, egg-cups, tazze, cutlery, and a handbell.
Strada abgerissen. This entry is an abbreviated version of an The attribution of the drawings to the hand of da Strada
annotation made on the first page of the book itself, whichnot only goes back to the period when he was alive - he died
runs: Vasculorum Antiquorum Candelabrorum etc. formulae manuin Vienna in 1588 - but may well have been made during the
pictae von Jac. da Strada abgerissen. This volume has survived time that he actually resided in Munich, which probably
in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek until the present day as
covered the five years from 1565 to 1570. It may seem unduly
Cod. Icon. No.I99 and to the best of my knowledge the bold to question just 400 years after the event an attribution
statement that the drawings were copied (abgerissen) by da made during the lifetime of an artist who was well known at
Strada has never been questioned, although they are in fact the court of the Duke of Bavaria. There is, however, no
in the highly individual manner of Erasmus Hornick. The doubt that the catalogue entry is mistaken in another respect
as well. The various vessels depicted in the drawings, far
1 Katalog der deutschen Handschriften [1582], (Cbm.C.6I), Sign. MS. Teutsch,
St.I, No.. from being classical antiquities, follow the northern mannerist
201

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