Taunus Road

In 1916 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was not at the front. He had joined a reserve artillery unit two years earlier, come apart under it, and been granted leave after a breakdown. A patron then arranged a place for him at Dr. Kohnstamm's sanatorium at Konigstein, in the wooded Taunus hills north of Frankfurt. This road is one of the local views he painted there, about 20 canvases in all, the colour pushed hard and the perspective tilting as if the ground itself would not hold still. Years later the Nazis called his art degenerate and the painting was taken from its Jewish owners. It was returned to their heirs in 2020 and came to Richmond as their gift.