DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/KSCB-1375
Defense Date
2010
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Art History
First Advisor
Eric Garberson
Second Advisor
Michael Schreffler
Third Advisor
Margaret Lindauer
Abstract
This thesis examines how Ernst Ludwig Kirchner reconceived the female nude within the two contexts of Expressionism and the German nudist movement. In particular, it looks to Kirchner’s early paintings, executed between 1909 and 1914, of female nudes in landscape settings to determine how Kirchner operated within and departed from the conventions of the female nude. This thesis challenges the feminist critique of Expressionist painting and Kirchner’s female nudes. It also examines how Kirchner’s female nudes in landscapes are complicated by the early twentieth-century development of German nudism. While these paintings are often categorized as bathers following nineteenth-century French precedent, they in fact are unique products of die Brücke philosophy.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
December 2010