Woman in a Green Jacket 1913

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner painted this work, Woman in a Green Jacket, in Germany, using oil on canvas. Kirchner was associated with the group Die Brücke, a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905. Here, the subject reclines on a pink patterned sofa with her right arm covering her face. The composition, palette, and brushwork point to the influence of Fauvism, and yet the woman seems to be both confrontational and vulnerable. Her face is gaunt, and her gaze is intense, with dark eyeliner accentuating her eyes. The art of Kirchner and Die Brücke was considered degenerate by the Nazi regime, which gives this work an important cultural and institutional history, particularly in terms of the politics of imagery. To fully understand works like this, we can research exhibition histories, biographies, and collections catalogues that help reveal the social conditions that shape artistic production.