Born in Bavaria in 1880, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner began his studies at the Technical University of Dresden. There he made friends with future artists Fritz Bleyl and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, together founding the influential Expressionist group Die Brücke (The Bridge) in 1905. The group responded to both the German Old Masters and the contemporary avant-garde, revitalizing older media such as woodcut prints. In 1911 Kirchner tried, unsuccessfully, to found a private art school, and volunteered for the German military in 1914. He was discharged in 1915 following a nervous breakdown. Moving to the Swiss countryside, his reputation as a painter began to grow, with a presence at the Venice Biennale in 1928 and membership of the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1931. In 1933 he was branded ‘a degenerate’ by the Nazis, with more than 600 of his works being sold off or destroyed by the regime. He committed suicide five years later.
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