Badende Am Waldsee 1919

Otto Mueller made this painting, ‘Bathers by a Lake’, at some point in his life using oil on canvas. It’s all earthy tones, like browns and greens, and there’s this real sense of a laid-back process at work. You can tell he wasn’t trying to be too precious about it. The paint is thin, and the surface almost looks like it’s breathing. You can see the texture of the canvas coming through, especially in the figures of the bathers, which aren’t really trying to be super realistic. Look at how he’s painted the leaves, like quick dashes, full of movement. It’s like he's trying to capture the feeling of being in this space, rather than a perfect picture of it. There’s one mark that really grabs me, right above the head of the figure on the left; it's like a dark little bird in flight. Mueller reminds me a bit of Paula Modersohn-Becker, you know? That same interest in the body, and in nature, but with this slightly off-kilter feeling. It's like they’re both part of a conversation about how we see and feel the world around us.