Blaue Badende 1912

Otto Mueller made Blaue Badende, or Blue Bathers, using distemper on canvas; it’s now in a private collection. I love how the colors feel almost like a memory – muted blues and greens, soft tans. It’s like he's reaching for something just beyond grasp. The paint has a powdery, matte surface. See how the figures are outlined in a slightly darker blue, but the paint is so thin you can almost see the canvas underneath? It's like he's sketching with color. The lack of detail in the faces gives them an archetypal feel, universal rather than individual. I keep coming back to the way the blue of their hair echoes the shadows in the landscape. It flattens the space, making it feel dreamlike. Mueller was part of Die Brücke, a group of German Expressionist artists and I can see echoes of Matisse in the simplified forms and the emphasis on color. But there's also something uniquely his; a quiet, contemplative mood. It’s a reminder that art doesn't always need to shout. Sometimes, it whispers.