Chestnut Trees in Moonlight, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1904
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, portraitErnst Ludwig KirchnerGerman, 1880–1938

Chestnut Trees in Moonlight

1904 · Print

Can I see it?

Not on view at present

Where is “Chestnut Trees in Moonlight” now? Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C., United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked
In this state since
Source
The museum

Details

Accession number
2012.92.134

What it shows

In the catalog

Sources

In the life of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

The whole life
  1. 1903–1904

    Munich: the Technical School and the Debschitz-Schule

    In 1903–1904 Kirchner continued his studies at the Polytechnic School of Munich and attended the art school run by von Debschitz and Obrist.

  2. 1905

    An architect’s diploma and then only painting

    In 1905 Kirchner returned to Dresden, sat the final diploma examination, received his architecture degree and then turned exclusively to painting.

  3. c. 1905

    A studio in a former butcher’s shop

    The group first met in Kirchner’s first studio, a former butcher’s shop; defying convention, they drew from non-professional models of their own circle, choosing quarter-hour poses to encourage spontaneity.

  4. 7 June 1905

    Founding of the Brücke group

    Four architecture students of the Dresden Technical College — Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff — founded the group Die Brücke (“The Bridge”); 7 June is considered its founding day. Heckel proposed the name and Kirchner became the group’s ideologist: he made the rejection of the materialist worldview, realism, Impressionism and Art Nouveau the basis of its aesthetic.

  5. 1906

    The Brücke manifesto

    In 1906 Kirchner wrote the group’s programme: anyone who directly and without illusion reproduces what he feels the urge to create belongs to the Brücke.

  6. September – October 1906

    The first Brücke exhibition: the female nude

    In September and October 1906 the group’s first exhibition, devoted to the female nude, was held in the showroom of K. F. M. Seifert and Co. in Dresden.

All works

On view at National Gallery of Art

Museum page

On the same theme · Tree

All works on the theme