Bohème moderne c. 1924

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this watercolor, Bohème moderne, with ink on paper, but when? I love how the ink outlines have a life of their own, almost as if they’re vibrating. The yellow wash that creates the background feels really immediate, like he wanted to capture a scene as quickly as possible. It’s fascinating to see how he's used the watercolor in such a transparent way, letting the paper breathe. There's this scribble just to the right of the central figure, a loose hatching of green, that could almost be nothing, but it activates the whole space around it. It makes me think of Matisse, especially his openness to experimentation. There's this similar sense of trying things out, pushing and pulling at the image to see what it can do. Ultimately, this piece feels more like a question than an answer, which is what makes it so compelling.