Still Life with Sculpture in front of a Window 1935

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this painting of a sculpture, still life, and window with oil paint. Look at that sculpture lying on its side! It looks like the start of a really interesting afternoon. You can see the way the artist applied each colour separately – a red table against the grey-blue of the wall. Then this odd sculpture – a nude perhaps – is right there in the middle, and it's all a bit puzzling. What was Kirchner thinking about when he put all of this together? There's this dialogue between what's outside – suggested by the plant, and the light coming through the window – and this figure that's both there and not there. I think the artist is saying that the inside is like the outside; it's all made up, like painting! Kirchner reminds me a bit of Matisse and the way he would put his studio in the painting. It makes you feel like painting is a portal.