Gartenstraße - surroundings of the Rottluff cemetery

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff was intensely moved by the motif of Gartenstrasse. Located not far from his home, the mill, he designed it in three different versions. It is assumed that it was created in today's Kieselhausenstraße, where there used to be many nurseries.

Beate Ritter, former curator of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, writes: "In 1906, the year in which this painting was created, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff's painterly productivity virtually exploded. A year earlier, the self-taught artist from the Chemnitz suburb of Rottluff, who was just 21 years old, had founded the "Brücke" artists' group in Dresden together with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Fritz Bleyl. After the winter, in which Schmidt-Rottluff had mainly worked on woodcuts, an experimental phase began in 1906." The painting is reminiscent of French Impressionism, but has its very own signature style. "The painting, which was created during this period of awakening, shows impressively where the path was to lead. The boldness of the 22-year-old's new artistic approach becomes particularly clear in comparison with works created up to around 1904. There is a vehement confrontation with the hitherto prevailing artistic norms. Fired up by predominantly unmixed colors of high luminosity, which appear to be applied more with brushstrokes than brushstrokes, the painting shows an experimental energy that swept away both fellow artists and art lovers and co-founded German Expressionism."

Year 1906
Material/technique: Oil on cardboard

(Sources: Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Werke in den Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, published by Ingrid Mössinger in 2015 as a catalog of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz; Kulturstiftung der Länder, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff)
www.kunstsammlungen-chemnitz.de