Sad Female Head 1929

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this painting, Sad Female Head, with oil on canvas. Look at the colours; how the pink of the woman’s face contrasts with the indigo backdrop, and the purpley browns of her hair. It’s like the colour becomes the mood. There’s something very raw and immediate about the application of paint here. You can see the marks of the brush, they’re almost brutal, and Kirchner doesn't seem interested in blending or softening them at all. The paint is thin and transparent, but it’s been applied in blocks and slabs. I keep coming back to that hand, shielding half of her face. It's as though she's trying to disappear, or maybe she's hiding from us. Kirchner was a key figure in German Expressionism and his work often explores themes of alienation and psychological distress. You can see echoes of Edvard Munch’s ‘Melancholy’ here; the mood is all encompassing, even the wallpaper seems to press down on the figure. For Kirchner, art was not just about representation; it was about expressing an inner emotional state, even if that meant distorting reality.