Sertigtal in Autumn 1926

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner painted Sertigtal in Autumn with oils on canvas, but it looks to me like he started with watercolour. The paint handling is really interesting. He’s using thin layers to create these really vivid, almost jarring colours. It’s like he’s pushing the landscape to the point of abstraction, where the colours become more about feeling than about, you know, realistic representation. Take a look at the mountains in the background. See how he’s used these sharp, angular strokes of blue and green? It’s almost aggressive. And then you’ve got these softer, more fluid strokes in the foreground, especially in the trees. There's this lovely tension between control and chaos, intention and accident. It makes you think about how we construct our experience of the world through the act of seeing, doesn't it? I think of Emil Nolde and his expressive use of color. Both artists were trying to capture something beyond the surface of reality. They were painting feelings.