Self-Portrait with Cat

1920 · Painting

May one see it?

Yes, receiving visitors

Harvard Art Museums

Cambridge, United States

Room1500, floor 1, Modern and Contemporary Art

On public display.

Checked: 10 days ago
In this state since: Sep 27, 2026
Source: The museum

On the map Museum page

About the painting

An avid commentator on his own work after World War I — in diaries, correspondence, and even publicly under a pseudonym — Kirchner contributed to the legend of his wartime experi-ence as a soldier. The Brücke expressionist had suffered a breakdown during the war, and is now known to have partially feigned illness to avoid returning to the front. To recuperate, he eventually left Germany permanently for rural Frauenkirch, near Davos, Switzerland, in 1917. Despite the self-imposed isolation in the mountains depicted here, Kirchner kept abreast of developments in Germany, debating details of the history of Brücke and consistently emphasizing his own artistic leadership and autonomy. Thickly painted on a red-and-white checkered cloth — a rare example of a work by Kirchner on an unconventional support — Self-Portrait with Cat retains the more vigorous paint application of the artist’s prewar years, a style he soon abandoned for large, flat planes of color.

Harvard Art Museums

Particulars

Accession number: BR50.12

In the catalog

Paintings Oil German painting Modernism 20th century German

Sources

Harvard Art Museums
Image: Harvard Art Museums — © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Meanwhile, in the life of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

The whole life

1917–1918
The Bellevue Sanatorium in Kreuzlingen
At the end of August 1917 Kirchner was visited once more by Henry van de Velde, through whose good offices he was admitted to Ludwig Binswanger’s Bellevue Sanatorium in Kreuzlingen, where he went on painting and making woodcuts.
1918
Moves to the “In den Lärchen” farm in Davos
In 1918 Kirchner received a residence permit and moved to the “In den Lärchen” farm above Längmatte in Davos — first renting a room in the upper hut, and in 1919 the rooms above — and furnished it with furniture he carved himself; he wrote to Henry van de Velde of a beautiful old Grisons house with a kitchen like Rembrandt’s studio.
1919–1920
Health mends, exhibitions multiply
In 1919–1920 Kirchner’s health improved markedly: he was still dependent on morphine, but his doctor was slowly reducing the doses, and several exhibitions in Germany and Switzerland in 1920 strengthened his reputation. He grew close to the local farmers, who were amazed by his gramophone, and found many subjects among them.
c. 1920
Reviewing his own art under a pseudonym
To control public opinion of him and free himself from dependence on the art critics, Kirchner began writing critiques of his own art under the pseudonym Louis de Marsalle.
1921
A large exhibition in Berlin
In 1921 a major display of Kirchner’s work was held in Berlin, and the reviews were favourable.
May 1921
Meets the dancer Nina Hard
At the beginning of May 1921, in Zurich, Kirchner met Nina Hard and, despite Erna’s objections, invited her to Frauenkirch; the dancer became an important model and appears in many of his works.