Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

This scene shows us a snapshot of a visit to the Dresden Zoological Gardens, probably a moment of pause. 

No comparable motif can be found, making this depiction extremely rare and an important document of the period. 

The summer of 1910, which Kirchner, Pechstein and Erich Heckel spent in Moritzburg, north-west of Dresden, has achieved mythical status in the history of the "Brücke". Here, the artists realised their dream of merging life and art. They paint and draw, go swimming naked with their models, play with boomerangs and bows and arrows and frolic in the reeds that surround the ponds. Here they live out their idea of a primitive way of life, inspired by their enthusiasm for tribal art, as well as the carved and painted wooden beams from the Micronesian island of Palau in the Museum of Ethnology in Dresden (pictured) and the exhibition on villages of "natives" on display at Dresden Zoo (intended to encourage public support for Germany's colonial endeavours). Like many of the wide-ranging reform movements of the early 20th century (including naturism, sun worship, vegetarianism and free expressive dance), the artists of the "Brücke" sought to renew art and society by stripping away the façade of urban civilisation in an attempt to return to a natural and original way of life.