Dodo and Her Brother 1908

Here’s "Dodo and Her Brother," an oil painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Just look at how that ochre and fleshy rose light pours into her yellow dress! It's so luminous. You can feel Kirchner trying to capture a fleeting moment—a brother and sister out on the town, maybe in Dresden? I'm thinking about how he layered those strokes, how they create depth and movement. It's like he's trying to nail down not just what they look like, but also the energy between them. You know, siblings! Kirchner had his own demons, and you can see that tension playing out in the painting. But he never gave up on trying to see the world in his own way, through the grit and grime of the city, but also through this vibrant, almost Fauvist palette. It's a reminder that painting is this amazing conversation across time, artists riffing off each other, trying to make sense of things one brushstroke at a time.