The image displays a stylized profile of a person with their upper body visible, including the head, neck, and part of the shoulders. The person is shown in a side view facing left, with their left hand raised as if adjusting their glasses on their nose. The facial features are abstract, depicted with exaggerated lines for the eyes, nose, and mouth. The hair is portrayed as a simple dark mass, suggesting short, slicked-back hair. The artwork utilizes a limited color palette of primarily green and yellow shades with bold black outlines. The background contains a stylized design or texture,…
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Bucheinband (cover) from Georg Heym: Umbra Vitae (Georg Heym: Shadow of Life)

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880 - 1938)

and author Georg Heym (German, born Poland, 1887 - 1912)

printer Spamersche Buchdruckerei, Leipzig

publisher Kurt Wolff (German, 1887 - 1963)

1924

Medium
woodcut, printed in black and green, on yellow cloth from a bound volume with 50 woodcuts (including cover and front and back endpapers)
Classification
Volume
Dimensions
book: 23.8 × 16.5 × 1.2 cm (9 3/8 × 6 1/2 × 1/2 in.)
Culture
German
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CG-W
Credit line
Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art