The exhibition in the Braglia Foundation, Lugano, focuses on Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's work during his stay in the Swiss Alps from 1917 to 1938 by presenting four major themes: Shepherds, Alpine Life, Personalities from the Artist's Mountain World and the Alpine Landscape. At the same time, the 67 works reveal the artist's love of technical experimentation. In addition to oil paintings, there are pencil drawings, watercolours, woodcuts, lithographs, etchings and two sketchbooks on display, as well as a selection of his photographs and a photo album in which the artist archived the images of all his paintings. Seen together, they offer a whole new insight into the inner world of an artist who desperately sought refuge in the mountains to overcome his existential crises, finding an authentic and haunting mode of expression.

For the first time, the Fondazione Gabriele e Anna Braglia is presenting the recently acquired painting Heimkehrende Ziegenherde. It was painted in 1920, only three years after Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's arrival in Davos in the Grisons, where he had fled from Berlin on 20 January 1917 to regain the peace and emotional serenity lost with the outbreak of the First World War. Other impressive works are on loan from the Kirchner Museum Davos and from the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner estate, in Wittracht/Bern.

The mountains played an important role not only for Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, but also for Gabriele and Anna Braglia. Their great fascination for the summits is attested to by a selection of 20 photographs in the private library. The photos were taken by Gabriele Braglia during his numerous stays in the Dolomites, including a special tribute to his wife Anna, who died in 2015, with Anna and the Red Umbrella.

On the occasion of the exhibition, Hirmer Verlag, Munich has published a book with 200 pages and numerous colour illustrations in Italian, German and English. It contains essays by Swiss and international scholars: Katharina Beisiegel (author and freelance curator), Frances Blythe (art historian), Carla Burani (director of the Kirchner Museum Davos), Ingeborg Henze Ketterer & Wolfgang Henze (founders of the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive in Wichtrach/Bern), Manuela Kahn-Rossi (former director of the Museo Cant