Al igual que muchos artistas y escritores de su generación, Kirchner se rebeló contra el conformismo y la previsibilidad de la sociedad moderna y prefirió un estilo de vida más bohemio. Kirchner, junto con Karl Schmidt-Rottluff y otros, fundó Die Brücke, o El Puente, un grupo de artistas conocidos como expresionistas que influyeron en el desarrollo del arte moderno del siglo XX.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker. He was one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century art. Kirchner volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a breakdown and was discharged. His work was branded as "degenerate" by the Nazis in 1933, and in 1937 more than 600 of his works were sold or destroyed.
