Stehender Mädchenakt Im Grünen 1929

Otto Mueller made this painting of a standing nude girl in a green landscape in the early 20th century, but the exact date is unknown. Imagine Mueller in his studio, working and reworking this scene. It’s all about the lush, broken marks of greens and pinks that barely coalesce into the figure and her surroundings. It's as if he’s trying to capture a fleeting vision, something just out of reach. The paint looks thin, almost translucent in places, giving the whole thing a dreamy, ethereal quality. The girl’s pose, with her arms behind her head, feels so casual, so unposed. I’m thinking about other painters like Matisse, who were also wrestling with how to represent the figure in nature. There’s a similar kind of flattening of space, a focus on the decorative elements. It’s like they’re all in conversation, bouncing ideas off each other across time. And that’s what makes painting so exciting – it's an ongoing experiment, a way of seeing and feeling the world in new ways.