Song of Songs (Egon Tschirch)

Young Tschirch had his most experimental phase in the early 1920s. Within a short period of time he had developed his own style, characterized by the use of the primary colors red, yellow and blue. The saturated colors and the expressive, dynamic compositions of his works often provoked strong reactions.[2][3]

During this period Tschirch's intellectual involvement turned to the texts from the Old Testament's Song of Solomon. A man and a woman alternate in professing their love for one another, using interplay to extol their longing and fulfillment, separation and reunion. Throughout this time Tschirch created more than 50 painted sheets of fantastic interpretations showing tension-filled choreography.[4] The power of nature, the sensuality and the spirit in these paintings had a cathartic effect. He was able to precisely capture the phenomena of light and shadow, warm and cold in nature. As a result of his work with this topic and material, Tschirch selected 19 of his works and numbered them, in order to personally arrange them in expositions and when on display.[1]

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  No. 1
• 
  No. 2
• 
  No. 3
• 
  No. 4
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  No. 5
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  No. 6
• 
  No. 7
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  No. 8
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  No. 9
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  No. 10
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  No. 12
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  No. 13
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  No. 14
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  No. 15
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  No. 16
• 
  No. 17
• 
  No. 18
• 
  No. 19

Since 1913 Egon Tschirch had been working (with war-time interruptions) on the topic of the Song of Solomon. On Easter Sunday 1923, his special exhibit opened in the city museum of Rostock.[5] It met with critical acclaim and thus in 1924 the state museum in Schwerin also showed this cycle of paintings.[6]

Afterwards, the works transferred to private ownership and then disappeared at the end of the 1920s into a basement in Berlin, not far from the Kurfürstendamm. The cycle of paintings was forgotten. The works were only rescued by chance from being discarded in 2008 and rediscovered in 2015. With the help of original newspaper reviews from the 1920s it was possible to recognize the theme of the works as belonging to the Song of Solomon cycle.[5][6] The remarkable find encompassed a total of 32 original works, including all 19 numbered sheets as well as 13 studies.[1]

• 
  signature (No. 10)
• 
  numbering (No. 12)
• 
  painted back (study J on No. 12)
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  1923 Rostock. Museum of Art and Antiquity
• 
  1924 Schwerin. State Museum
• 
  2017 Ahrenshoop. Museum of Art

After the initial presentation in Rostock in 1923,[5] the works were then also shown in Schwerin in 1924.[6] Afterwards the paintings transferred into private ownership, landing with a decorative painter in Rostock, who was a friend of Tschirch's.[1] Following this man's death in 1928,[7] the paintings then transferred to his heirs, where they remained until 2015. It was only then that the works were returned to Rostock.[1]

In 2017, for the first time in 93 years, all paintings in this cycle have been made available to the public in the Ahrenshoop art museum.[8] On the occasion of the centenary anniversary in 2023, the entire cycle will be exhibited again in Rostock.[9]

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  Study A
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  Study B
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  Study C
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  Study D
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  Study E
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  Study F
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  Study G
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  Study H
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  Study I
• 
  Study K
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  Study L
• 
  Study M

• Song of Songs

further picture cycles referring to Song of Songs:

• Lovis Corinth - coloured lithographs (1911)[10]
• Ludwig von Hofmann - woodcuts (1921)[11]
• Willy Jaeckel - etchings (1923)[12]
• Marc Chagall - paintings (1957-1966)[13][14]
• Salvador Dali - coloured etchings (1971)[15]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Song of Solomon.

• Egon Tschirch in German

• Marc Chagall's Song of Songs, a five-painting cycle, is housed in the Marc Chagall Museum in Nice.
• Salvador Dali - 12 coloured etchings (1971)
• Lovis Corinth – 26 coloured lithographs (Berlin: Panpresse, Paul Cassirer), Lovis Corinth - Das Hohelied Ill