Kirchner was born in Vienna in 1876 and later moved to Paris. He drew for La Vie Parisienne together with artists like Mucha, all of whom were greatly influenced by the work of British artist Aubrey Beardsley, who had created an 'art nouveau' style of his own. Mucha went on to concentrate on posters and Kirchner was drawing for postcards by 1901. His cards are treasured items for collectors today, the earliest being in the Japanese idiom that was fashionable at the beginning of the century. The model for all his cards was his wife Nina, and following his death in August 1917 she first tried to commit suicide and then went out of her mind through excessive use of drugs.

Kirchner's cards of the war years are not so draughtsmanlike as his earlier cards. They are more direct, easier for the soldier to identify himself with than the ephemeral beauties of La Vie. Other French artists drew girls--Sager, Herouard, Fontan, and Italians too, like Mauzan and Rappini--but Kirchner was the favourite, his were the cards that were pinned up in the trenches. His cards were the original pin-ups.

The Tommy called Kirchner 'Kirsonner' and young officers had competitions to see who could collect the most cards. In the 3 July 1916 issue of the Kemmel Times, a trench newspaper, Gilbert Frankau wrote a poem entitled The Nuts of the Old Brigade. It was a lament for lost Gunner companions and one of the verses went like this:

    'O where is Bob of the big moustache?

    An alien adjutant shoots

    For the Major-man that I used to know

    With his Kirchner ladies all in a row

    And his seventeen pairs of boots.'