The Cleveland Museum of Art

• Provenance
  1938-1957

  Artist’s estate, sold to Grosshennig Gallery

  1957

  (Galerie Grosshennig, Düsseldorf, Germany, sold to Otto Gerson Gallery)

  1957 - by 1960

  (Otto Gerson Gallery, New York, lent to Grosshennig Gallery on commission)

  By 1960-1963

  (Galerie Grosshennig, Düsseldorf, Germany, returned unsold to Marlborough-Gerson Gallery)

  1963-1964

  (Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, sold to Allan Frumkin)

  1964-1966

  (Allan Frumkin Gallery, New York, NY, sold to E.V. Thaw)

  1966

  (E. V. Thaw, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

  1966-

  The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

  Provenance Footnotes

  1 After Kirchner’s death in 1938, his estate passed into the hands of his wife, Erna.  The contents of the estate remained in the Kirchner home in Davos until 1946, when they were transferred to the Kunstmuseum Basel. In 1948 the collection was inventoried, and it remained at the Kunstmuseum Basel until 1954 under the supervision of the museum’s director, Georg Schmidt.  From 1954, Kirchner’s works were in the care of the estate administrator, Roman Norbert Ketterer, appointed by Kirchner’s heirs, who sold the CMA picture to Galerie Grosshennig on February 14, 1957. 

  2 Although the mode of transfer of the Kirchner painting from Galerie Grosshennig to Otto Gerson Gallery is unclear, it occurred quickly, as the painting appears in a 1957 exhibition mounted by Gerson.  The Kirchner is also recorded in the Otto Gerson stock books by June 1958 (stock no. P47), and in the gallery inventory by October 31 of that year.  Neither the stock book nor the inventory clarify the circumstances of the transfer of the painting from Grosshennig to Gerson.  Because Wilhelm Grosshennig and the Gerson Gallery worked very closely together throughout the 1950s and 1960s, it is quite possible the painting was under joint ownership. 

  3 The Kirchner was once again with Galerie Grosshennig, having been lent on commission by Gerson.  It appeared in Grosshennig exhibitions in 1960 and 1962.  

  4 After failing to sell at Grosshennig, the painting was returned to the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, which had absorbed Gerson’s stock after his death in 1960.  After Gerson died, his widow, Ilse, Ralph Colin, executor of Gerson’s estate, and Frank Lloyd and Harry Fischer, who had founded Marlborough Fine Art in London, created the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery in New York in 1963. 

  5 Several pieces of correspondence indicate that Frumkin purchased the painting in Germany, which could mean that he saw it at Grosshennig but purchased it through Marlborough-Gerson shortly thereafter, or that Grosshennig was involved in the sale in some capacity, as the two dealers were still closely associated. In any case, the Kirchner was certainly back with Marlborough-Gerson by 1963, and therefore Frumkin could not have purchased it directly from Grosshennig. 
• Citations
  Schmalenbach, Werner, and René Wehrli. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1880-1938. Zürich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1952.

  Gordon, Donald E. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968.

  
  Wolfgang Henze, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Jan. 7, 2015, in CMA curatorial file.

  Wolfgang Henze, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Dec. 11, 2014, in CMA curatorial file.

  Wolfgang Henze, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Jan. 7, 2015, in CMA curatorial file.

  Wolfgang Henze, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Dec. 11, 2014, in CMA curatorial file.

  Otto and Ilse Gerson Papers, Business Records, reel 4051, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

  Myers, Bernard Samuel. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: New York, Fine Arts Associates Otto M. Gerson, November 12 - December 7, 1957. New York: Fine Arts Associates, 1957.

  Eugene Victor Thaw, letter to Edward B. Henning, Nov. 17, 1967, in CMA curatorial file.

  Otto and Ilse Gerson Papers, Business Records, reel 4051, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

  Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig. Einladung zum Besuch meiner Ausstellung auserlesener Meisterwerke des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts: Juni-August 1962. 1962.

  Gordon, Donald E. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968.
  

  Margaret Heuser-Mantell, letter to Margaret Burgess, Aug. 11, 2004, in CMA curatorial file.

  Tuchman, Maurice. Van Gogh and Expressionism: [Commentary]. New York: Guggenheim Museum. 1964. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1964.

  Margaret Heuser-Mantell, letter to Margaret Burgess, Aug. 11, 2004, in CMA curatorial file.

  Eugene Victor Thaw, letter to Edward B. Henning, Nov. 17, 1967, in CMA curatorial file.

  Eugene Victor Thaw, letter to Edward B. Henning, Nov. 17, 1967, in CMA curatorial file.

  
  Margaret Burgess, fax to Alice Adam (handwritten notation on fax), July 20, 2004, in CMA curatorial file.

  Eugene Victor Thaw, letter to Edward B. Henning, Nov. 17, 1967, in CMA curatorial file.

  The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 196 archive.org

  The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 196 archive.org

  Cleveland Museum of Art. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Dept. of Art History & Education, CMA, 1969. Mentioned: p. 1 archive.org

  The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 245 archive.org

  Lovleva, L. I." Natalia Goncharova: Between East and West". Moscow, Soviet Union; State Tretyakov Gallery, (2013): 40-51. Reproduced: p. 46

  Kunsthaus Zürich, Kunsthaus. Expressionismus in Deutschland und Frankreich Von Matisse zum Blauen Reiter. München. Germany: Prestel, 2014. Reproduced: p. 59

  Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 296

  Moeller, Magdalena M. Die Brücke 1905-14. Baden-Baden: Museum Frieder Burda; München: Hirmer, 2018. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 118-119
• Exhibition History
  Brucke Artists 1905 - 1910. Brücke-Museum Berlin, Berlin (Dahlem), Germany (organizer) (September 8-October 28, 1973).
• Cite this Page
  {{cite web|title=Wrestlers in a Circus|url=false|author=Ernst Ludwig Kirchner|year=1909|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}