Badende Männer, einer Schilf tragend 1910

'Bathers, one carrying reeds' by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner looks like it was drawn quickly with thick ink! I imagine Kirchner was staring intently at a scene of nude figures moving across a landscape. The figures seem to be emerging from the ground, as if made of the same material as the reeds and earth and this strange mountain that rises in the background. I love the idea of men bathing and walking with reeds, of being naked and vulnerable, of finding comfort in the landscape and each other. When he made this, I wonder if Kirchner was thinking of other artists like Nolde who were also part of Die Brücke, or even further back, like the German Renaissance artists, or maybe even further, to ancient Greece, where bodies were put on display as a source of power. Artists are always looking at each other's work, stealing and borrowing ideas. I wonder which artists coming after Kirchner took something from this image, with its strange, almost awkward, figures?