The French are Sitting on the Couch 1910

Kirchner made this drawing with charcoal, the kind of stuff that crumbles off the stick and gets all over your hands. You can see that the process is immediate, the kind of drawing you do when you're just trying to get something down fast. I really like the way he's captured the weight of the figures just through line; they have a real presence in their repose. You can see how the charcoal is smudged in some areas, and really dark in others, giving a sense of depth and volume without a lot of detail. There’s something about that scribbled area at the bottom that really pulls the whole thing together. It’s almost like a signature, a kind of shorthand for the energy of the whole scene. It reminds me of some of Matisse’s quick figure drawings, where he's just trying to capture the essence of a form with as few lines as possible. It’s all about gesture and movement.