Bather 1912 - 1913

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this drawing of a bather, at an undetermined date, using crayon and graphite. Look at the way Kirchner seems to be feeling his way around the form. The peach-colored crayon follows the contours of her body. It is a body suggested in outline, the interior spaces left uncolored and free. I find my eye is drawn to the lower leg of the figure. The green crayon seems to be pressing harder into the paper, the marks are more definite than elsewhere. Note the rapid, spiraling lines that describe the space around the figure. It’s like a record of the artist’s thoughts as he worked, a visible diagram of a process. There’s something about the awkwardness of Kirchner’s work that has always appealed to me. Think of Henri Matisse’s approach to the figure. Kirchner is often compared to other expressionist painters like Emil Nolde, and is considered part of that ongoing conversation. His art asks us to embrace the unfinished and the uncertain.